


Touring With The Vikings

by HanksLady



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-16 07:07:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 36,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29078337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HanksLady/pseuds/HanksLady
Summary: Skade's band Pagan Rock are chosen to support The Vikings on tour. The girls aren't keen after they read bad press about Skorpa's past, but is it true? Drummer Brida is quick to hook up with Vikings bass player Ragnar, but Skade is reluctant until singer Skorpa offers her a new tattoo. AU modern-day story set in 2015. F/M from Skade's POV, Pairings Skade/Skorpa, Brida/Ragnar, Aethelflaed/ErikIn Chapter 1, Pagan Rock arrive at their first gig and look forward to performing, but after the things they have read about Skorpa, they're not too happy about spending 6 weeks with his band,
Relationships: Aethelflaed/Erik, Brida/Ragnar, Skade/Skorpa
Comments: 5
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

"I've arranged a tour of the UK for you—thirty dates," our manager, Aelswith said.

Immediately, the five of us sat up straight in our chairs, waiting to hear more. Pagan Rock had been playing bars and tiny clubs in Winchester and the surrounding small towns for two years, trying to gain a following. We had an album out although it was only available for download and was way down at sixty-seven in the rock charts. A proper tour was what we had been longing for.

"You won't be headlining of course," Aelswith went on. "But this will put you on the map. If it goes well enough, I'll be looking at booking headline dates for the end of the year."

"Who are we supporting?" Gisela asked.

"The Vikings have reformed. You'll be their support."

"The Vikings?" Mildrith frowned. "Who are they?"

"Before your time, kid," Brida said, tapping the drumsticks she carried everywhere against her boot.

"I'm only four years younger than you," Mildrith muttered.

I glowered across the desk at Aelswith. "Are you serious? The Vikings? My dad used to listen to them."

"They have a big following."

"Mostly old farts, probably." Brida huffed. "Why would their audience want to see us?"

"When I said reformed, I didn't mean with all of the original members," Aelswith explained. "In fact most of them are new, young guys of about your age. Except for—"

"Skorpa." Brida scowled now. "That dickhead."

"Do you know him?" I glanced at her.

"No, but I remember all the shit written about him in the press a few years ago."

"I'm surprised he's still alive." Gisela rolled her eyes.

Brida snorted. "I saw a picture of him not that long ago. He looked like he'd been dead and buried, then dug up again."

"Shit," I said under my breath.

"Girls!" Aelswith slapped the desk with both hands. "You have to take what you can get in this business. Besides, contrary to what you might believe, the Vikings are becoming popular again right now. They have a new record out and if you bothered to look, you'd see it rocketed past yours in the charts this week. They're up to thirty-six. Now, I've written a set list for you." She pushed a sheet of paper across the desk towards me. "Get practising. You have two weeks. The tour starts in Exeter on February the twentieth. I'm arranging the transport and accommodation and I'll get the information to you by email within the next couple of days. That's all."

Three hours later in our ratty little studio, we took a break from practise. I pulled out my Smartphone and looked up the Vikings. There didn't seem to be a lot of new information, but a couple of rock music magazines had posted their tour dates with the support band noted as "to be advised." And Brida had been right—the recent picture I found of Skorpa showed him looking rough. He had a longish beard, mostly grey, tied in a tail with a metal clip, and thick black kohl around his eyes. A long scar from his right temple down to his cheek, narrowly missing the corner of his eye marred his thin face.

I searched farther back for anything relating to what Brida had said, and quickly found news reports from years earlier. Around ten years ago, Skorpa had been heavily into drugs and been arrested and charged with possession more than once. He'd been in rehab, fallen off the wagon, and then—I gasped—been arrested for sexual assault?

"What the fuck is Aelswith thinking?" I muttered. I read on. Later, he seemed to have cleaned up his act by having another stint in rehab. There were no more reports until about five years ago when he overdosed and was clinically dead for three minutes. "Brida, you were spot on," I said.

"What about?"

"I found some stuff about Skorpa. Says here he overdosed in 2010 and was dead for three minutes."

"Shame they resurrected him," Mildrith said. "I read that he assaulted a girl."

Aethelflaed gasped. "And we have to tour with this man? Ugh."

"Hey, Skade." Brida grinned suddenly and turned her phone around to show me a picture of a young blond man with the sides of his head shaved, and a beard tied in a tail like Skorpa's.

"Who's that?"

"Their bass player, Ragnar. Damn, he's hot. Maybe it won't be such a hardship touring with them after all."

"The drummer is gorgeous, too," Aethelflaed added. "He's called Erik. Look." She showed me another picture. Erik, too, was blond with the sides of his head shaved, and a beard. The hair he did have was braided.

"They're all pretty hot," Gisela said. "The other two are called Uhtred and Sihtric. I wonder if they're single? We might have a lot of fun."

"You know the singers usually end up thrown together," Brida teased. "Skade, you'd better get ready for Skorpa."

"Get lost." I scowled.

"You never know, he might be nice underneath," Gisela said doubtfully. "He's just old."

"He looks older than he is. He's only forty," Aethelflaed put in.

Mildrith frowned. "What does age matter? He's a drug addict and a suspected rapist. That's hardly a promising history."

"I suppose it was a long time ago," I said grudgingly. "We don't know what he's like now."

"Probably worse, because he'll be desperate. Surrounded by four hot young musicians with the fans all wanting them and ignoring him." Brida grinned. "Watch your back, Skade, he might decide to carry you off to his fortress and ravish you."

"Shut up, bitch," I said good-naturedly. "I suppose we're stuck with it now anyway, so we'd better see what happens and make the best of it."

"Fair enough. Just so the rest of you know—Ragnar's mine. Keep your hands off, ladies." Brida smirked and waggled her eyebrows.

"Don't get too fond of him, they live in Denmark, remember," Gisela said.

Brida giggled. "Maybe he'll be so besotted with me, he'll move here."

"Dream on." I put my phone away and got up. "Let's get back to it."

…

The two weeks we had to practise passed much too quickly. The minibus Aelswith had arranged to transport us, collected us from her office on Friday just before noon. Aethelwold, the roadie she had hired—a short blond guy with a pock-marked face—stashed Brida's drumkit and all our guitars, amps and other equipment into the back of the vehicle where four of the seats had been removed. He was to be the driver, too. Mildrith sat up front and talked to him, while the rest of us occupied the remaining seats and complained about the cramped space.

The journey took almost four hours due to heavy traffic, and we were outside the club we were to play at by late afternoon. A full-sized coach was already parked behind the club and I assumed it must be the Vikings' transport. A club manager spoke with Aethelwold and while the roadie began unloading our gear and taking it inside, we were shown to a pokey dressing room that looked as if it had seen better days.

"They're really pushing the boat out for us," I grumbled, scowling at my reflection in a cracked mirror.

"Come on, Skade. It's our first nationwide tour. We're not going to be playing stadiums on the first outing," Gisela said. "It's five hundred capacity, though. That's not bad."

"Yeah, I suppose." I began dragging a comb through the knots in my hair.

"Where are we staying tonight? Anyone know?" Brida asked.

"A motel. We have two rooms."

"Great. Looks like me and Ragnar get an audience."

"You're obsessed with that guy. You haven't even met him yet. He might be an arsehole," Gisela said.

"But he's a hot arsehole."

"Brida, he probably won't look twice at you. Now, Aethelwold, on the other hand, would most likely be delighted with your attention," Aethelflaed teased.

The banter continued as we got ready for the show. We ate some of the pre-packed sandwiches we'd brought with us by way of an evening meal, then finished dressing. My outfit consisted of black lycra leggings, a leather bodice, and thigh-high boots. I went heavy with the eyeliner and painted my lips purple. The others wore similar clothes—lyrca, leather, dark makeup and silver jewellery. I put a couple of narrow braids into the sides of my hair and pinned them at the back of my head to keep my hair out of my face. I added hooped earrings, and several silver necklaces with assorted sizes of chain links, a couple with pendants dangling from them.

In the club, the Vikings' roadies began tuning their guitars and testing the mics. As soon as they finished, it would be our turn. Aethelwold had already set up Brida's drumkit in front of Erik's, and I'd taken a quick peek at he stage, discovering it to be at least twice the size of the ones we'd played before.

"I'm so nervous," Mildrith said then. "What if they hate us?"

"Why would they?" Brida tapped her drumsticks on the dressing table.

"Because they're here to see the Vikings and their music is so different from ours."

"It's not really," Gisela put in. "I listened to their new album. It's heavy but not as much as their old stuff. A bit dark, maybe, but I liked it." She tapped at her phone and moments later, the sound of guitars filled the small room, backed by a heavy bass and drumbeat, and Skorpa's deep voice growling over it. It sounded like something I would enjoy listening to, but I didn't say anything.

I stayed silent, sitting in a corner, while Aethelwold tested our drums and tuned the guitars. Then his voice came through my mic: "One, two, two, two, one, two, two, testing, two, two—"

Beyond that, a DJ started up the club's music system with a Bon Jovi song, and voices began to filter in as the doors were opened to the audience.

"An hour to go," Brida said. "I can't wait to get out there."

Mildrith sat quietly chewing her nails while the others talked. My pulse quickened with excitement and slight trepidation. I loved being on stage, but there was always that fear beforehand that something would go wrong. Once I was out there, it would disappear.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pagan Rock's first show goes well, and Skade briefly meets Skorpa for the first time

"You're up." The club manager stuck his head around the door. "Strictly forty minutes."

"Sure." I nodded and gestured to Brida. "Go, girl."

Brida clicked her drumsticks above her head and swaggered out of the room, beaming. She always oozed confidence as she walked onto the stage. The rest of us followed her up the stairs to the stage wings. Gisela and Aethelflaed's guitars waited at the side of the stage on their stands. They picked them up, slipped the straps over their heads, and quickly joined Brida on the stage. Mild applause greeted them and the DJ turned off the music. Mildrith walked out and positioned herself behind her keyboards. Brida counted in and the four began to play the intro to our first song. After four bars, I walked out to my mic. Aethelwold had stuck the set list on the stage next to my mic stand, and at the top had written "Exeter" in capital letters. Good man. After half a dozen shows I'd probably forget where we were.

I wrapped both hands around the mic. "Good evening, Exeter! We're Pagan Rock. Enjoy the show." A bunch of guys close to the stage roared and punched the air. I looked down and flashed them a smile, playing up to the ones who looked the most interested. Then as the band came to the end of their intro, I began to sing.

The club was the biggest venue we'd played by far and the sound was so much better. Aethelwold had set up the amps and tuned everything perfectly, and I silently thanked him as my voice filled the room. I took a glance to my left where Gisela played her guitar and she shot me a wide smile. A quick turn of my head in the other direction and both Aethelflaed and Mildrith looked happy and relieved. I didn't need to check on Brida—she'd be on top of the world playing her drums in a barn with only a bunch of animals listening. She just loved to play and she wouldn't care if we had an audience of one or a thousand.

At the end of the first song, the audience gave us a reasonable amount of applause and mobile phone cameras began to flash here and there. After three songs, I paused at the front of the stage and stooped to high-five a few eager young guys. Everything was going great. I decided it was time for a quick introduction and signalled to Brida with my hand behind my back to slow the beat into a long bridge between two songs. We'd practised this many times for if the opportunity should arise, and the other girls immediately improvised.

"How are you doing, Exeter?" I called out.

At least a third of the crowd shouted and clapped.

"Just wanted to introduce you to my girls." I held out my left hand. "This is Gisela on lead guitar."

The applause grew as Gisela played a couple of bars of something she'd apparently made up on the spot.

"Aethelflaed on bass." I held out my right hand. Aethelflaed bowed, letting her hair fall down over her face, and plucked a few of her bass strings.

More applause.

"Over there—Mildrith on the keyboards."

Mildrith flushed as red as her hair and shyly played a quick scale. She received just as much applause as the others.

"And right behind me—" I stepped to the side so they could see her. "—Brida on the drums!"

Brida stood up and hammered out a five-second solo, tossed her drumsticks into the audience, and plucked a new pair out of her boot.

I took my mic off its stand. "And I'm Skade."

A roar went up from the front half of the audience. "And this is 'Who do you want to be?'" I finished, introducing the next song.

The rest of the show went quickly and each song was applauded enthusiastically as it ended. When we finished the last one and lined up at the front of the stage to take a bow before quickly leaving, cheers followed us. The other girls hurried down the stairs to the dressing room. Aethelwold waited in the wings to get back on stage and dismantle our mic stands, keyboards, and Brida's drumkit.

"Great job, Aethelwold," I told him.

"Thanks!" He beamed and got to work.

I turned to go down the stairs just as a figure stepped out of the shadows in front of me, and I found myself face to face with Skorpa.

"Oh! Hey." My first thought was that photos on the Net didn't do him any favours. In the flesh and close up, he looked somewhat healthier, or maybe the pictures were just old from when he was on drugs. His beard was mostly grey, but the hair on his head was dirty blond and hung around the shoulders of his leather coat, much longer than I'd thought it would be. He had heavy black kohl around his eyes. I realised he was talking.

"—got a great voice; powerful."

"Thanks, I appreciate that." At least I assumed he must have been referring to my singing.

"We weren't sure about having a girl band support us."

I frowned and snapped back: "Why, because girls can't play rock?"

"No, because their music is usually too soft to compliment ours. I like your style. You're Skade, right?"

"That's right." I swallowed my spike of temper. I got riled up easily and the girls were always telling me it got me in trouble. The last thing I wanted to do was piss him off and have him call Aelswith to complain. Instead, I offered him a handshake.

He took my hand in a firm grip and squeezed, rather than shaking. "Nice to meet you. Catch up in the bar later?"

"Okay," I agreed. Brida would be delighted by this development if she got the chance to talk to Ragnar.

He nodded and released my hand. I jogged down the stairs to the dressing room where the others were chattering excitedly about the show.

"Where were you?" Brida asked as I closed the door behind me.

"I met Skorpa."

Immediately four pairs of eyes fixed on my face. "What's he like?" Aethelflaed asked.

"I don't know." I shrugged. "He likes us, which I suppose is a good thing. He said he was sceptical about having a girl band support them, but he likes our style. We're meeting them in the bar later, so try not to drool all over Ragnar, Brida."

Brida grinned. "Can we watch their show?"

"I don't see why not. There's space in the wings. Don't get in the way."

"Awesome!" Brida turned to the cracked mirror and began attending to her sweaty face and reapplying her makeup. Aethelflaed did the same, but I didn't bother. I wasn't trying to impress anyone.

Aethelwold came and went numerous times until all of our equipment had been removed from the stage and stashed in the bus. Then he came back into the dressing room. "I'll rest in the bus until you're ready to go to the motel," he said.

"You don't want to listen to the Vikings?" Gisela asked.

"Hell, no." He wrinkled his nose. "Not my cup of tea."

Fifteen minutes later, when the Vikings took to the stage, Brida and Aethelflaed eagerly left the dressing room to watch. I stayed where I was, slouched on a saggy old couch with my feet on a table talking to Mildrith and Gisela about the show.

The Vikings were loud. As soon as they started up, their heavy bass beat made the room vibrate and my chest throbbed. Three guitars and a bass supported the rapid drumbeat played by Erik, and when Skorpa started singing, he roared into the mic.

"Gosh," Mildrith said.

I grinned. "Imagine what it's like out there in the audience."

"Aren't you going to watch them?" Gisela asked.

"Maybe later. Let the others have their fun." I was tempted. Their music was exciting and I could imagine the audience crushed into a bunch in front of the stage, jostling and punching the air. I'd been to gigs like that and found it exhilarating. I held out for four songs, then got up. Aethelflaed was on her way down the stairs.

"My ears hurt," she said with a giggle.

"Is Brida still up there?"

"Yes, her tongue's hanging out."

I climbed the rest of the stairs and found Brida in the wings, her phone out taking pictures of Ragnar who was just feet away from her, playing his bass with his knees bent and head thrown back.

"Oh my God, he's so hot!" she said loudly in my ear.

I laughed. "You're acting like a groupie."

"I don't care. If I don't shag him by the end of this tour, I'll throw myself under a train."

"That's a bit dramatic." I turned my attention to the rest of the band.

Erik pounded his drums and sang backing vocals. He wore a band tee shirt with the sleeves ripped out exposing his muscular shoulders. Sweat dripped down his face and flew from it as he tossed his head around. Uhtred and Sihtric played their guitars, one either side of Skorpa, who also had a guitar although it hung at his back on its strap, unused for the song they were currently playing. He was howling into the mic and swinging the stand around like a weapon. Uhtred repeatedly stepped out of the way to avoid being knocked down with it. Skorpa's leather coat lay on the floor beside the drumkit, and the plain black shirt he wore clung damply to his skin. His hair flew around his head as he tossed it in time to the rapid beat of the music.

"They're amazing, aren't they?" Brida said in my ear.

"You're just obsessed with Ragnar," I teased. "You'd think they were amazing if they were shite."

"It's not just that. I really like the music. Skorpa's voice is good."

"Yeah." I watched the band for a couple more songs, then left Brida and went back to the dressing room. I was keen to get out of the leather bodice—the bones were uncomfortable after a couple of hours. I stripped it off and found a tee shirt in my bag to wear instead. I didn't bother with a bra.

"Where's Brida?" Gisela asked me.

"I think she's staying up there until the end. You were right, Aethelflaed. Her tongue's practically trailing on the floor. If Ragnar has even the slightest interest in her, he'll be getting lucky tonight, I'd bet on it."

Gisela laughed and shook her head. "She's such a tart."

Eventually, the show came to an end. The Vikings stopped playing and ten minutes passed, during which the audience yelled and stamped and chanted. The band went back on stage for an encore, then it was over and the DJ started up again. The guys thundered back down to the stairs to their dressing room and a few minutes later, Sihtric knocked and opened our door.

"Hey, girls. You want to join us in the bar?"

"Sure." I got up quickly. "You're Sihtric, aren't you?"

"Yes. Good to meet you."

I quickly introduced each of the others and walked with him through the corridor that opened out into the club. "Prepare to be stampeded," he warned me.

"I doubt the crowd is that interested in us."

"You might be surprised. Your band's awesome." He held the door open and waited for me and the others to walk out. I spotted the rest of the Vikings at the end of the bar, surrounded by a crowd of eager fans waiting to be photographed with them. Sihtric left me and went to join them.

"Come on, girls." I linked arms with Brida and headed towards the bar.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade and Uhtred become good friends, Brida and Ragnar get close, and the band plays the coveted Nottingham club, Rock City

The next twenty minutes or so saw us surrounded by people—mostly guys—who had enjoyed our show and wanted to get selfies with us or ask us questions. It was exciting to be so appreciated and I got swept up in it, acting out of character by smiling for the camera countless times and chatting to anyone who wanted my attention. Eventually, things calmed down and we were left at the bar with the Vikings. I found myself standing next to Uhtred.

"Hey. What can I get you?"

"Oh, just a pint of something. Cider? Thank you."

Uhtred ordered two pints from the barman and paid with a credit card. "Is this your first supporting tour?" he asked.

"Yes. We've been clubbing around our local town for the past couple of years."

"I like your music. I downloaded the album last week." He grinned.

"Wow." I laughed and clutched my chest. "Our first famous fan."

"I wouldn't say I'm famous. No one had ever heard of me before I joined the Vikings."

"How long have you been with them?"

"Eighteen months. We've been touring Denmark for the past year and making a record. I doubt anyone outside the country knew we were even doing anything until this tour was announced."

I glanced around me and spotted Brida talking to Ragnar. I chuckled. Uhtred followed my gaze. "Oh yeah, Ragnar likes your drummer."

"Believe me, she'll be over the moon to hear that. What about you?"

Uhtred's eyes widened. "Oh, um, I don't—I have a girlfriend. I don't mess around."

I grinned. "Relax, I wasn't coming onto you. You're not my type. Too pretty." I couldn't quite believe I'd said that.

"Pretty?" Uhtred wrinkled his nose, then laughed. "Good, you can act as my bodyguard if the groupies get too much. You're not my type either, by the way."

"Excellent." I lifted my hand and he high-fived it. I could see him getting to be a great friend, even after only two minutes of talking to him.

"So, tell me about Pagan Rock. How'd you get started?"

And that was it. Uhtred and I talked each other's ears off as we drank our pints, everything else forgotten except for the few times we were interrupted by people wanting to get photos of us. One girl asked us to pose together which we happily did, clinking our glasses together. A couple of times I looked around to see what the others were doing, and saw Brida and Ragnar still talking, and the other girls in a group with Erik and Sihtric. Skorpa kept himself a little apart from the rest, but he caught my gaze a few times.

Suddenly, the club lights went up and the music stopped. Everyone started making for the exit and I realised two hours had passed.

"Guess we'd better get out of here. Where are you staying?" Uhtred asked. We walked to the back entrance with the rest.

"I don't know, probably Travelodge or something like that. Aethelwold knows. He's our roadie," I explained.

"If it's Travelodge we're there too. I think it's either that or Premier Inn all the way. Our manager's really going all out for us." Uhtred snorted.

"Ours too. You should see the crappy bus we're travelling in."

"Skade!" Gisela called out to me. "Hurry up, we're going."

"See you tomorrow," I told Uhtred and hurried over to the bus. As soon as we were on it, Aethelwold drove it out of the carpark. I looked around and noticed Brida was very conspicuously missing. "Where's Brida?"

"You seriously don't know?" Gisela rolled her eyes. "Still, you were so wrapped around Uhtred all night, you didn't see her half an hour ago with Ragnar's tongue down her throat."

"I was not 'wrapped around' Uhtred. He's got a girlfriend and we're not each other's type."

"Yeah, yeah," Aethelflaed teased. "You were glued to each other's sides."

"Is it so hard for you to believe I could be friends with a guy? Look, I even told him he was too pretty for me. He said he'll call on me for help if the groupies bother him. I can see him being a good mate, but that's all. Get your minds out of the gutter."

"Okay, okay." Gisela sank back in her seat. "So, what about Skorpa? I mean, did you not see him watching you?"

I stared at her, remembering the way Skorpa's gaze had been on me each time I looked that way. "I can't say I really noticed."

"I think he fancies you."

"Get lost. He didn't even speak to me."

"He's worshipping you from afar," Mildrith said.

"Shit, how old are you guys? You sound like schoolgirls." I pulled out my phone and started looking at my Twitter feed. Immediately, I was faced with a picture of Uhtred and me clinking glasses and the caption, "Wonder if the Vikings' Uhtred is hooking up with Skade from their support band?"

"Oh, no. That's not gonna please his girlfriend," I groaned.

"What isn't?" Gisela asked.

I showed her my phone.

"It's easy for rumours to start. It's not like we're playing little clubs where nobody knows us or cares anymore. The Vikings have quite a following and they'll all be looking at us." She showed me her own phone, with the Vikings' Twitter feed on the screen—they had twenty-six thousand followers. "And look here." She touched the screen a couple of times and a picture of Brida and Ragnar kissing appeared. They looked as if they were devouring each other.

"Fuck," I muttered. I reminded myself to be careful what I did in public for the next six weeks and to make sure Brida was aware, too. She was probably too swept up in Ragnar's attentions to notice or care.

We arrived at the Travelodge fifteen minutes later. Two rooms had been allocated for our use. Aethelwold had brought a sleeping bag and intended to sleep in the bus to guard our equipment. I shared a room with Gisela and crashed out within minutes of checking in. In the morning, we found a café nearby and Aethelwold joined us for breakfast. There was still no sign of Brida and she had obviously spent the night with Ragnar.

We didn't see anything of the Vikings that morning. Brida was waiting for us by the bus when we returned, with a smug smile on her face, but the Vikings' bus was gone.

"You dirty bitch!" Gisela teased and gave Brida a hug.

"Oh my God, he's awesome." Brida pretended to swoon. "I never actually expected him to like me. Then last night, I thought if I get to hook up with him once it'll be amazing, but we got on so well, I think it'll be more than that." She chattered on as we got on the bus, about how gorgeous Ragnar was, and what tattoos he had, and things he said.

"Please don't tell us how big his cock is or what positions you tried," Aethelflaed protested.

Brida turned red and laughed. "You're just jealous because Erik didn't notice you."

"Even if he had, I wouldn't have dived into bed with him on the first night, you slut," Aethelflaed responded with a giggle.

"What can I say? He's worth it. He—" She continued regaling us with Ragnar's endless good qualities as the bus set off for the next town.

I checked my phone and added a couple of posts to my Twitter feed. I copied the girl's photo of Uhtred and me, reposted it, and made a comment about me having found a great buddy to share a beer with. I posted a selfie I'd taken in the dressing room with the others before the show and commented that our first supporting show for the Vikings had been amazing and that we were grateful to them for the support slot. By the time we reached our next destination, it had been shared over fifty times, and I'd gained three hundred followers.

The rest of the first week went great. We performed five shows and at each one, most of the audience seemed to appreciate us. After the shows we spent some time at the club bars, letting ourselves be photographed, chatting to members of the audience, and having a couple of drinks with the Vikings. Uhtred and I spent most of our spare time together and pretty soon knew each other's life stories. He was madly in love with a beautiful brunette named Iseult, who was pregnant with his baby. She had intended to be on the tour with him, but was suffering terrible morning sickness and was staying with a friend in London. He talked to her on the phone every morning and told me he planned to propose to her after the tour finished.

Brida didn't spend every night with Ragnar, but it was clear they were smitten with each other, and at least four nights of the week she slept in his room. A couple of times she'd travelled on the Vikings' bus instead of ours.

Erik had started showing an interest in Aethelflaed, but nothing had happened as far as I was aware. She could be shy and reserved with men, and whenever any of us mentioned him, she turned bright red.

Skorpa kept to himself most of the time. He spoke to me a handful of times for a couple of minutes, mostly about how the shows went, but several times I spotted him watching me with Uhtred with a frown on his face. I didn't think anything of it. He probably thought what some of the bands' followers continued to think—that there was something brewing between Uhtred and me, which couldn't have been further from the truth.

That Saturday night we performed at Nottingham Rock City. I'd been to the club a few times to see other bands before Pagan Rock formed and I loved the place. Any upcoming or medium-sized rock band wanted to play two clubs in particular: Rock City and the Astoria in London. When my band first started, we'd dreamed of playing Rock City's basement, but tonight we were on the main stage, playing to two thousand people—our biggest audience to date—and it couldn't have gone better.

When the Vikings took to the stage, Brida and I watched most of the show from the wings. The audience was huge and over-excited, some of them trying to climb over the barrier in front of the stage and having to be shoved back by the four security guards in the metre wide gap between barrier and stage.

"Oh my God, they're wild," Brida said.

"I've seen it like this when I've been here in the audience," I told her.

At that moment, Uhtred moved to the front of the stage and put his foot on an amp, leaning forwards as he played his guitar. The crowd lurched in his direction and a couple of desperate girls struggled to pull themselves over the barrier towards him. A security guard quickly manhandled them back into the crowd. Skorpa swung his microphone stand around and almost took out both Sihtric and one of the security guys. A roar of appreciation went up from the crowd and the middle section slammed forward against the barrier.

"I wouldn't like to be down there in that mob. You'd get crushed." Brida grimaced.

I pulled out my phone and discreetly took a few pictures with the flash off so as not to irritate the band. The lighting was bright enough above the stage anyway. "Got a great one of Ragnar. I'll text it to you," I told Brida.

We went down to our dressing room just before the Vikings finished their main set, and stayed there during their encore. Not long after, a sweaty Uhtred arrived at our door to invite us to join them for drinks. I walked out with him and the others followed, preparing to be mobbed by some of the crowd the moment we appeared in the club.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade gets drunk after the show at Rock City and wakes up with one of the Vikings.

It took an hour before the members of the audience who were interested in getting photos and talking to both bands subsided. Desperate for a drink, I waved at the barman and pointed to the cider pump nearest me. In a moment I had a pint in my hand.

"I'll get it. Give me a pint, " Skorpa said behind me, indicating one of the beer pumps. The barman pulled a pint for him and took the note he held out.

"Thanks." I nodded at Skorpa and gulped down half of my pint to quench my thirst. As I glanced up at him I noticed the kohl around his eyes was smeared with sweat, and his hair damp. He wore his customary black shirt and leather trousers.

"You're welcome. It was a good show tonight. Big crowd."

"Have you played here before?" I asked him.

"First time around, yes. That was a long time ago."

"I've been here a few times, but in the audience."

Skorpa nodded. "I meant to speak to you before now, but Uhtred seems to have been monopolising you." He smirked. "He keeps trying to tell us there's nothing in it."

"There isn't." I frowned at him. "He's in love with his girlfriend. We're just mates."

He shrugged. "Okay. It looked like you were pretty close."

"Yeah, not like that." Was he jealous, I wondered? The other girls had told me a few times now that he couldn't seem to take his eyes off me, although I hadn't noticed. I supposed Uhtred had been monopolising me. We were practically joined at the hip after the shows and he'd invited me to meet Iseult when we ended the tour in London.

"Skade!" Gisela interrupted then. "Sorry, Skorpa. We're heading down to the basement. They've got cocktails. Are you coming?"

"Sure, on my way." I drained my glass.

"Enjoy," Skorpa said and turned away from me.

I followed Gisela around the edge of the dancefloor and down two sets of stairs. Mildrith and Aethelflaed were already there, sitting in a booth with a large jug of something blue in front of them. I sat down. "Where's Brida?"

"I'll give you one guess." Mildrith rolled her eyes. "She and Ragnar were getting a taxi to the motel. They can't wait."

I poured myself a glass of the blue concoction and tried it. It tasted of oranges and a lot of alcohol.

"It's twenty quid a jug," Gisela said. "There's another one coming."

We drank and talked, eventually joined by Uhtred and Erik. The latter took a seat next to Aethelflaed and proceeded to hold her attention for the rest of the night—or at least as long as I could remember. The cocktails were strong and I drank a lot. Uhtred was next to me sticking to a beer. Things grew fuzzy and the room spun around me. I leaned on him in an effort not to fall off my chair.

"We're going," I heard Gisela say at some point, and I waved woozily to her. Then my memory deserted me.

I opened my eyes to find myself in bed in a darkened room. My head pounded and my mouth felt as if I'd been eating the contents of a vacuum bag. A heavy arm lay around my waist and warm breath touched my neck where my hair had been pulled aside.

I touched my stomach and hip, hoping to God I wasn't naked, but I was still wearing the lycra leggings I'd performed in and at the top—a tee shirt. That couldn't be right. I'd had a leather vest on with about two dozen evil hooks and eyes up the back, and whalebones all the way around. And who the hell was I in bed with? Surely not Uhtred. We were mates. He loved Iseult. Reluctantly, I turned onto my back and a beard brushed my cheek. His arm now rested across my ribs below my breasts.

"You're awake."

Oh fuck. Skorpa. My heart began to hammer and I tried desperately to remember what had happened after I started drinking those cocktails, but couldn't. I licked my dry lips.

"What happened?" I asked reluctantly.

"Not what you're thinking."

"What am I wearing?"

"My shirt. I put it on you after you announced the whalebones in your bodice were killing you and ripped it off."

"Shit," I groaned and turned my face away.

Skorpa chuckled. "You have nice tits, by the way."

"Fucking hell." I pulled away from him and crawled out of the bed, my temples banging. "Excuse me." I groped my way to the bathroom, closed the door, and put the light on. I peed before I dared look in the mirror at myself. My eye makeup was smeared and my eyes bloodshot. I looked as if I could have been recently brought back from the dead, and the light wasn't helping my headache. I ran a cup of water, gulped it down and refilled it, then washed my face. I dragged it out as long as possible, but I couldn't stay in the bathroom all night. Eventually, I turned off the light and opened the door.

"I can't remember anything," I admitted.

"Lucky for you, I can remember."

"How are you sober?"

"I drank two pints. Of beer."

"Those damn cocktails. I should have stuck with cider. Nothing happened?" I asked again. That news article I'd seen about him came to mind, and I wondered if it would be beneath him to molest a woman when she was passed out drunk.

"Trust me, I prefer being with a girl when she's more than semi-conscious and hasn't had her head down the toilet."

I sat on the edge of the bed with a groan, and rubbed my hands over my face, quietly dying of embarrassment, but relieved my suspicion was unwarranted. I didn't know him, of course, and had no reason to trust him, but I did anyway. "I'm so sorry. I never drink that much."

"Hey, it happens to us all. Your friends left you in the bar, and Uhtred wasn't sure what to do with you, so I brought you back with me."

"I suppose I should say thanks. I need to find my room."

"It's four in the morning, Skade. Just stay here."

I thought about it for a minute. What harm would it do? Besides, I had no idea which rooms the others were in, and the thought of stumbling down the corridor trying to find them when I just wanted to go to sleep didn't fill me with enthusiasm. I lay down with my back to him. He pulled the bed covers over me and when his arms came around me again, I didn't protest. I just went to sleep.

When I woke again, it was daylight and Skorpa was up and dressed in jeans that looked like he'd painted them on. He was shirtless and a number of tattoos covered his upper arms and shoulders. As he turned away to pour some coffee, I saw a large skull tattoo, partly obscured by his hair which was wet from the shower and hanging half way down his back. I told myself I didn't notice that his upper body was well-toned, and his chest smooth and hairless.

I sat up. "Nice ink."

"Thanks. How do you have your coffee?"

"Usually milky. Today, black and sweet, and as strong as you can make it." I grimaced and dragged my fingers through my tangled hair. Skorpa grinned and passed me a cup. "Try to forget you ever saw me like that last night," I muttered.

"Part of it I'd rather remember." He bent to pick up something from the floor, then dropped my ruined leather vest on the bed.

I groaned again and felt my face heat. Not much made me blush, but now I could visualise myself staggering around his hotel room drunk, tearing off my top, and exposing myself, and the thought was mortifying. Normally, I was confident and bolshi, no matter what position I found myself in, but now I just felt like an idiot. I tried to shake it off and studied him instead as he made another coffee for himself. Was all that stuff I'd read about him true, I wondered? I wanted to know, but didn't really want to broach the subject, especially after he'd apparently taken care of me when I was incapable.

He looked up and met my eyes suddenly. "You can ask."

"Ask what?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Whatever it is that's on your mind about me. Something you've read or heard, am I right? Just get it out."

I decided to spit out the question. At least I'd know, then. "What happened with that girl? The one you got arrested over."

"I thought it would be that." He finished his coffee and poured another, than sat down on the end of the bed near my feet. "She was a groupie—a very persistent one. It was a long time ago and I suppose I looked more desirable than I do now. Or maybe she just wanted to tick off bedding a rock singer on her bucket list. I don't know. She came to a few shows with a friend and they managed to get backstage. She made no secret of what she wanted and I turned her down each time."

"Why did you turn her down?"

"I was dating the woman I eventually married. Whatever else has been said about me, I don't cheat. I had no interest in that girl or any other. The last time I saw her she'd had a few drinks and she was more pushy than usual. I grabbed her by the arms to shove her out of the dressing room and her friend took a picture. The next thing I knew, the police were at my motel accusing me of rape. It ended the tour right there. The press got hold of it and of course, only wrote the part that would sell the most copies—that I was guilty. I never touched her. She was pissed off because I wouldn't and accused me of that to get back at me. There was no evidence, no DNA, nothing, and my guitar player and two roadies saw everything. The girl's friend's story didn't quite tie up with hers and the charges were dropped. That was reported, but it's hard to find. It got a tiny paragraph hidden amongst a lot of other stuff, whereas my arrest got a headline." He shrugged. "That's the press for you, and mud sticks. I'm never going to completely shake that off."

"I'm sorry," I said, both relieved and angry on his behalf. "Thanks for telling me."

"I'm guessing you believed it."

"I wasn't sure what to believe. The press prints a lot of crap, and twists things."

"Yeah." He paused and drank some more coffee. "Gisela's in room two-twenty." Suddenly, he grinned. "You'd better keep the shirt."

Finally, I smiled ruefully. "I'm never going to forget this, am I?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade and Skorpa talk tattoos and she is surprised to discover he is a skilled tattoo artist

When I knocked on the door of room two-twenty, Gisela opened it in seconds.

"Skade! Where have you been?" She pulled me into the room and closed the door. "Were you with Uhtred?"

"No. Where's my bag?"

"There." She pointed. "Where did you sleep?"

"Don't ask." I grabbed my toothbrush and shut myself in the bathroom. There wasn't enough time to take a shower, but we had no show that day, so I could have one when we arrived at the motel in the next city. When I emerged feeling slightly more human with fresh breath and a clean face, Gisela was waiting.

"Whose shirt is that?"

"It's just a band shirt." It was a Vikings shirt with a bloody sword on it.

"But who were you with? Did you hook up? Was it that groupie guy that was photographing you?"

"What groupie guy? Where did you go to anyway?" I scowled. "You fucking got me drunk and left!"

"You weren't that drunk then and besides, Uhtred was there. Why are you in such a mood?"

"I woke up with Skorpa," I admitted.

"What?" Gisela's eyes widened comically. "How the hell did that happen?"

"I have no memory of it. He says you all left and Uhtred didn't know what to do. Skorpa took me back with him and apparently—" I groaned. "—took care of me while I threw my guts up. He put his shirt on me because I, uh, tore my top off." I sat down and put my face in my hands. "Oh, God, it sounds so much worse described like that."

"I'm so sorry," Gisela said. "We thought you were just going to hang out with Uhtred a bit longer and then come back to the motel."

"It's okay."

"Skorpa didn't do anything, did he? I mean, you know, try to take advantage?"

"No, he was pretty decent about it." I was about to tell her what Skorpa had told me, when the door burst open to admit Aethelflaed and Mildrith.

"What happened to you?" Mildrith asked. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, no thanks to you."

"Didn't Uhtred bring you back?"

"No, Skorpa did. Something I have no memory of. Just don't ask, okay? My head is killing me. Anyone got any painkillers?"

"Here." Aethelflaed took a pack of Paracetamol out of her bag and passed it to me. "Sorry, Skade."

Thankfully, they dropped it and Gisela didn't say anything to them. We checked out of the motel and went to get some breakfast. I couldn't face the fry-up the rest of them ordered, and nibbled some dry toast washed down with more coffee. An hour later we were on the road to Leicester.

Despite the journey being a short one, it took hours. A huge accident had closed the motorway ahead and after two hours waiting, traffic was finally diverted off onto country roads. Aethelwold and the Vikings' driver took the buses into a service station so we could all use the facilities and get drinks and food. At last I was hungry, and got myself a sandwich and a coffee from Starbucks. I sat outside in the chilly fresh air to eat it. The others stayed inside for a while, but eventually Skorpa came over and sat at the picnic bench next to me.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Finally. Did I thank you this morning?"

"Yes. Forget it. Like I said, it happens to us all. Some worse than others."

He was clearly referring to himself. I smiled and tossed the remains of my lunch in a nearby rubbish bin.

"You're still wearing my shirt," Skorpa said with a grin, and lowered his gaze to my chest. I had a jacket on, unfastened, and the cold made it pretty obvious I wasn't wearing a bra. I refused to be embarrassed anymore—the worst part of the last twenty-four hours was me passing out and throwing up in his company.

"Stop gawking at me, you've already seen them." I gave him a shove and rolled my eyes.

He laughed and leaned closer. "I don't pretend to be much of a gentleman."

"Well, luckily you appeared to be giving it a try last night." I pushed my hair out of my face, wishing I'd had the time to wash it. "I'll wash the shirt and get it back to you."

"It's okay, you can keep it. I've got plenty. Besides, you look like a fan while you're wearing that."

"Stop it." I laughed and elbowed him. It was the first time I'd really spoken to him more than in passing, forgetting about the episode earlier when I just wanted to get out of his room as fast as possible. I realised I could probably get to like him, and it was really only things I'd heard about him that had made me think I wouldn't.

"How's your head?" he asked then.

"Not too bad, after about a gallon of coffee and some painkillers. I'm never drinking again."

"Yeah, they all say that."

"To rephrase—I'm never drinking cocktails again. If you ever see me near a jug of that blue shit in the future, please stop me."

Skorpa laughed again. "You ever wonder why I stick to beer? There was this incident with a bottle of whiskey once—"

"That's something I haven't read about. Go on."

"I decided it would be a good idea to drink the whole thing right before a show."

"Hell."

"Yeah, it was. I don't remember much, but I heard about it the next day after I threw up on stage and passed out halfway through the show. I wasn't popular, let me tell you. Half the audience wanted their money back, and there was this horrible picture of me on the Internet that was shared and copied for weeks afterwards."

"Shit. You're making me feel slightly better about discreetly passing out in a corner and throwing up in your bathroom. It could have been worse."

He grinned and gestured towards the buses. "Looks like the rest of them are ready to go."

"It's a good thing we don't have a show tonight. The way things are going we'll be lucky to get to Leicester before tomorrow." I got up and began to walk to the bus. Sihtric appeared from the building and joined Skorpa, so I left them and went to Gisela and Mildrith who were watching me.

"You two looked pretty friendly," Gisela teased as we got on the bus.

"We were just talking. You two need to get a life. Can't you hook up with some of the other Vikings and get off my back? It seems like Aethelflaed is following in Brida's footsteps." I pointed out the window to the other bus, where Aethelflaed could be seen sitting at the back with Erik.

"Sihtric isn't my type and Uhtred's practically married," Gisela said. "And apparently, Skorpa only has eyes for you, not that I'd touch him with a barge pole anyway."

"Fuck off," I muttered, but couldn't stop myself from smirking. Something had changed in the way I saw him and I wondered if anything would come of it. Was I attracted to him?

I pondered on it as the bus lumbered around narrow country roads before rejoining the motorway past the accident. I couldn't really say Skorpa was that good-looking, but there was something about him that drew me. I liked his image and he had nice hair and eyes. His upper body was decent and I imagined the lower half was the same—the tight jeans or leathers he wore didn't hide much.

"We're here. Wakey, wakey." Mildrith shook my shoulder. "Where are you? Off with the fairies?"

"Something like that." I got off the bus, relieved to have reached yet another Travelodge. It was late afternoon and we'd only had to travel thirty miles.

Brida and Aethelflaed came to join us. "The guys are planning to go out for dinner tonight," Brida said. "They want us to go with them. Are you all up for it?"

"Sure," I said.

"Okay." Gisela nodded. "What's the plan?"

"We're just going to meet up outside the motel. There's an Italian restaurant down the street," Aethelflaed explained.

We went to find our rooms and as had become habit, I was to share with Gisela. I was first in the shower, relishing the hot water and a good scrub. I dressed casually in a short denim skirt and a long-sleeved black tee shirt. I didn't bother with makeup other than a touch of lipstick. Gisela wore jeans and a similar top to mine.

We met the guys in front of the motel at six o'clock and walked the short distance to the restaurant, where Uhtred had booked a table for ten. Aethelwold had started hanging out with the Vikings' roadies by then and they were going somewhere else for burgers and beer.

"Look, cocktails two for one until eight o'clock," Brida said as we were shown to our table.

"The hell with that," I grumbled.

Skorpa chuckled behind me, then pulled out a chair. "Sit with me?"

"Okay." I took the seat which was at one end of the long table, and he took the one next to me.

"Cider?" he suggested.

"Thanks."

Everyone ordered drinks and started looking at the menus. Skorpa seemed to be spending more time looking at me than the list of food, and kept glancing down at my leg.

"What?" I prompted eventually.

"That's hot."

"What is? My leg or the ink?" My right leg had a Pagan style tattoo in plain black stretching from my upper thigh to my knee, and at least half of it was visible in the short skirt.

"Both, but I was referring to the tat. Must have taken a while."

"About four hours." I looked up and noticed part of what appeared to be a brand new tattoo on the inside of his left forearm. I grasped his wrist and turned his arm so I could see the dagger with a snake curling around it, still swollen and red around the edges. "When did you get this?"

"A couple of hours ago."

"How did you have time to find a tattooist?"

"I did it myself."

"Are you serious?" I studied the design, which was incredibly detailed work. "This is amazing."

He grinned. "I trained as a tattooist when I was eighteen. When you're starting out in music, you never make any money as I'm sure you know. I was always good at art and it's decent money. I usually take my equipment on tour in case I get the urge."

"Wow. I really like the design, too." I realised I was still holding his wrist and I removed my hand.

"Any time you want some new ink, let me know. I don't use transfers; I do it freehand, so pretty much anything you can think up, I can create."

"Wow," I said again. "I might take you up on that."

Our drinks arrived then, and I drew away from him to resume looking at the menu. My pulse quickened at the thought of getting a new tattoo, with Skorpa doing the inking, and something told me I would do it before the tour ended.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade realises she is interested in Skorpa and talks to him about getting a new tattoo

We stayed in the restaurant for a few hours, drinking and talking after the meal was over. I had one pint of cider, then switched to Diet Coke. I found Skorpa and I had a lot to talk about, and we forgot the others existed for most of the night, until Aethelflaed caught up with me in the bathroom.

"You're looking pretty friendly with Erik," I teased, as we washed our hands.

She beamed. "He's lovely." She turned to me and her smile switched to a frown. "What's happening with you and Skorpa? You seem to have forgotten about the kind of person he is."

"You mean that crap in the press years back about that girl?"

"It's hardly crap if he forced himself on her."

"It didn't happen. The press got hold of the story of his arrest and it was a headline. He didn't touch her and the charges were dropped, but they don't report that part, do they? I think it got a couple of lines hidden where you'd struggle to find it."

"Is that what he told you?" Aethelflaed said sceptically.

"I believe him. He's been decent to me so far."

"Okay. It just seems like you had a big change of opinion. When we found out who we were touring with you weren't keen."

"Things change. Anyway, forget about it. Go and enjoy Erik."

She flushed. "He kissed me on the bus earlier."

"Good for you. Let's go." I pulled the door open and went back to the others who were on their way outside. I walked with Uhtred on the way back to the motel. "Thanks, by the way," I said to him.

"For what?"

"Leaving me virtually unconscious in Rock City, you bastard." I punched him in the arm and laughed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do. Skorpa said he'd take care of you."

"I'm joking. I just made an idiot out of myself, that's all."

He grinned. "I noticed you were drinking coke tonight."

"Best thing for me."

He leaned closer suddenly and draped an arm around my neck. "So, you seem to be getting on okay with himself," he said in my ear.

"Is that all everyone has to talk about today?"

Uhtred snorted. "You know he wants to get into your pants, right?"

"Fuck off, Uhtred. Really?" I pushed him off me. "Haven't you got anything better to think about?"

He laughed some more. "Do you like him?"

"I'm undecided. Drop it, will you?" I walked faster to catch up with Skorpa and Sihtric who were ahead of us. Moments later, we reached the motel and went our separate ways to the rooms. Brida, of course, went to Ragnar's, and much to my surprise, Aethelflaed walked off hand in hand with Erik.

An hour later, I lay in my bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep, as Gisela snored softly in the other bed. I tried not to think about Skorpa, but I couldn't get him out of my mind. I imagined him tattooing me and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it. I'd been planning to get more anyway, so why not? Perhaps the next time we had a day without a show.

The show in the Leicester club the next night went great. The following morning we were back on the bus travelling to Birmingham, and I listened absently to the other girls giving Aethelflaed the third degree about Erik. For once Brida was on the bus too, but I didn't join in the conversation. I checked Twitter and discovered we were getting talked about a lot and our followers had increased hugely. There were a few pictures of Ragnar and Brida together, and several of us on stage. I hadn't seen any bad comments so far and the people that talked about our music seemed to love it. I searched for Skorpa and found he had posted a few times about the shows, and commented that the Vikings' support band were amazing. Another post pictured his new tattoo, although he didn't say that he inked himself. Dozens of people had liked it. I decided to talk to him about it again as soon as I got the chance.

The next week flew by. I lost track of which city we were in, and the shows went well. I hadn't had the opportunity to talk to Skorpa alone for days, though, and it irritated me. Uhtred hung around me all the time if I wasn't with any of the girls, but we were all busy performing with a show every night. That day, however, things changed. We were on the road to Edinburgh in the early morning and stopped at services for lunch. I made use of the facilities and grabbed coffee and a wrap from Costa. It was a sunny day, unusually warm for March, and I decided to eat outside. Everyone else seemed to be occupied—Brida with Ragnar, of course; Aethelflaed with Erik; Gisela and Mildrith whispering together about something, and most of the other Vikings hanging out with the roadies. Skorpa was outside sitting at a picnic bench drinking coffee.

I strode over to the bench, stepped up, and sat on the table half-facing him. "Hey. You avoiding me?" I accused teasingly.

He looked up and grinned. "I was beginning to think it was you doing the avoiding."

"Busy week. I'll be glad to have a night off."

"Yeah, me too."

"Aren't you eating?" I bit into my wrap.

"We had snacks on the bus earlier. I'd rather have a decent meal out tonight. Fancy it?"

"Okay," I agreed at once, assuming it would be an outing like the one the previous week, where everyone went to the Italian restaurant.

"What's your favourite type of food?"

I shrugged. "Anything really. Mexican's nice. That Italian we went to was good. If it's edible, chances are I'll eat it."

"You're easy to please."

"With some things." I hurriedly finished the wrap and washed it down with coffee. Skorpa studied me, his head tilted back to meet my gaze as I sat on the table. "I was thinking about what you said about tattoos," I said.

He raised an eyebrow. "The offer's there. Any ideas what you'd like?"

"Maybe a snake. Or a spider."

"A spider?"

"I have a tarantula."

"I imagine that's the kind of pet you would have. Dogs and cats not interesting enough?"

"Too needy. The spider is fine while I'm away doing this for six weeks. She fed just before I left and she has a drip-feed water bottle."

"What kind is it?"

"Salmon pink bird-eater." I pulled out my phone to show him a picture of my big girl crawling up my arm, her body the size of my fist and her thick hairy legs clinging around my wrist.

"Fuck, that's enormous. If you want a tattoo of her, I can do that. Any idea where?"

"The back of my shoulder."

"Can you text me the picture? Or any others you have so I can study it?"

"Sure. What's your number?"

He told me his phone number and I sent him a couple of pictures of my pet in different positions. "I'll study them so I have it—her—in my head. Just let me know if you want to do it."

"Thanks." I don't know what made me do it. I was already bent forward with my elbows on my knees from showing him the picture in my phone. I leaned down more and our lips met. It wasn't much of a kiss—a brief caress with my eyes half-open—before I straightened up.

Skorpa grinned. "I hope there's more where that came from."

"You'll have to wait and see." I stepped down from the table, dumped my rubbish, and walked back to the bus, my heart pounding. I hadn't expected to feel like this, but I wanted more. I wanted to kiss him and feel his hands on me. There was chemistry between us and it didn't matter what I'd thought when I first met him—I was starting to like him and I couldn't wait to see what happened.

I climbed onto the bus, aware that Gisela and Mildrith were watching me. They didn't say anything until we were back on the road. Then they looked at each other before turning to stare at me again.

"You kissed Skorpa?" Mildrith said.

"I did."

"But he's horrible."

"Ever since I've known you, you've told me I have bad taste in men, so I'm just living up to your expectations." I smirked at their wrinkled noses.

"Uhtred's much nicer," Gisela put in.

"Uhtred is in love with his girlfriend and planning to propose. Besides, I don't see him like that." I shrugged.

"But you see Skorpa like that?" Mildrith pressed.

"Maybe. We'll see." I already saw him like that, I just wasn't quite ready to admit it. And I knew I'd be getting the tattoo very soon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skorpa tattoos Skade, and the experience results in a surprise for Skorpa

We arrived at the motel in Edinburgh in the middle of the afternoon after the rest of the journey was surprisingly quick. I dumped my gear in the room I was to share with Gisela, took a quick shower, and wrapped myself in a towel while I dried my hair. Gisela took a turn in the shower and put on some casual clothes.

"What are you doing for the rest of the day?" she asked. "I thought I might do some sightseeing. We don't get much chance. Mildrith said she'd like to."

"I have a better idea." I didn't want to waste the day and then have to wait longer. I pulled out my phone and called Skorpa.

"Skade." He answered immediately as if he had the phone in his hand.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I was about to text you."

I laughed. "So, did you get my eight-legged friend in your head?"

"Uh huh. Spent a while on the bus studying her."

"We have plenty of time now if you haven't anything planned."

"I was hoping you'd say that. I'm in room one-fifteen."

"Give me ten minutes," I said and hung up.

"Who was that?" Gisela glanced at me.

"Skorpa." I shed the towel and put on a black thong and a satin bra.

"What did he want?"

"I called him," I reminded her. "He's gonna tattoo me."

"Are you serious?" She gaped at me.

"Yes, he's really good. He trained when he was a kid and does it to earn extra money." I found a short black skirt that zipped all the way up the back and put it on. I picked a strappy top that revealed most of my back down to the bra strap. I supposed I could push the straps off my shoulder to get them out of the way.

"That's risky, isn't it?" Gisela frowned at me.

"Why? He knows what he's doing. The new tattoo on his arm is one he did himself."

She shrugged. "I can think of better things to do than subject myself to pain on our day off." She looked at the small butterfly tattoo on her wrist which was her only one.

"I have a high pain threshold." I grinned and shoved my bare feet into a pair of ankle boots. "Don't wait up."

A couple of minutes later, I knocked on Skorpa's door. He opened it wearing skin-tight jeans with torn knees, and another band tee shirt, damp around the shoulders from his hair, indicating he'd just got out of the shower.

I stepped inside and locked the door behind me. "Where do you want me?"

He smirked. "Now, there's a leading question."

I raised my eyebrows and bit my lip to stop the laugh that bubbled up inside me. I was excited and Skorpa was in for a surprise.

"You want it on the back of your shoulder, right?" he remembered.

"Yes, this side." I touched my right shoulder.

"Lie face down on the bed here." He pointed, and moved a chair up beside the bed. A tattoo gun, various inks, paper towels, and disposable gloves were already laid out on the table.

I took off my boots, pulled my hair over my left shoulder out of the way, and lay down on the bed with my right arm dangling off the edge to the floor. I rested my head on the pillow turned towards the right. Skorpa sat down on the chair and touched the straps over my shoulder. "Can I move these?"

"Of course."

He pulled both the strap of the top and my bra strap off my shoulder out of the way. "Do you want it life-size?"

"Maybe two-thirds. She's about eight inches across."

"Okay." I lay still and watched as he prepared ink and the gun, then wiped my skin with an antiseptic wipe, and put on latex gloves. My heart began to pound. I tried to distract myself by looking around at whatever I could see without moving, but this was only the table of equipment, and Skorpa's thighs and crotch clad in tight denim. I closed my eyes. "Squeamish?" he teased.

"Are you kidding me?" I grinned.

He chuckled. "I'll start with the outline. Once that's done, it'll hurt less."

I bit my lip and said nothing, knowing it wouldn't be painful for me in the way he assumed. The gun started buzzing and he placed his left hand on my shoulder, stretching the skin. Then the needle went in. I'd always meant to have more tattoos, but I hadn't got around to it. The huge design on my leg had cost me a fortune and money was tight, but I'd always intended to have a few on my back and arms eventually.

The sharp scratch and burn of the needle moving through my skin brought me back to the present. I breathed steadily, trying to stay relaxed, but struggling not to squirm. Skorpa didn't speak and I guessed he was concentrating, so I kept quiet too. Maybe thirty minutes passed, and he stopped to change the needle size in the gun.

"That's the outline done."

I opened my eyes and moved my head to look up at him. "How's it coming along?"

He grinned. "Well, it's looking like the Vikings logo with my name through the middle."

"You wouldn't." I laughed a little.

"Don't you trust me?"

"I'm not sure," I teased.

"That's encouraging. Be quiet and keep still."

I shut up as he started filling in the design with colour. The sensation was more subtle and at the same time, more sensual. I tried not to wriggle, but as my heart beat faster and my body grew hot and damp with sweat, I clenched my fists and groaned.

Skorpa stopped and the buzzing sound ceased. "Do you want a break?"

"No," I gasped.

"You're in pain."

"I'm not." I sucked in a breath. "I like it."

He paused and I heard him breathing for a moment. "Does it turn you on?" he asked huskily.

My heart thudded harder. "Yes," I admitted.

"Fuck," Skorpa muttered. "Don't put ideas in my head."

"You asked," I reminded him. "I'm not gonna lie."

"Damn you." He huffed out a breath and continued with the tattoo.

I did my best not to distract him, but every minute was an agony of arousal. My blood rushed in my ears, and my body grew hotter still. I could feel my top sticking to my skin. I estimated I'd probably been lying there for an hour at least. I imagined him putting the gun down and touching me.

"Ahhhhhh," I moaned, unable to stop myself.

Skorpa swore under his breath and took the needle away from my skin. "You're making me hard," he groaned.

My breath caught in my throat, and I lifted my left hand to pull my damp hair off my neck. "You're making me wet," I whispered. His knee was inches away from my elbow and I thought about putting my hand on it and stroking my way up his thigh. I shivered and clenched my fists harder. "Keep going."

After a moment's pause, he started the gun up again. "Almost done."

I closed my eyes and let myself fantasise, but I bit my lip to keep myself quiet. Eventually, the gun went quiet and made a clunking sound as he put it down on the table. Paper towels tore as they came off the roll and he dabbed my skin gently, soaking up the blood. Then he peeled off the latex gloves. I opened my eyes as he took out his phone.

"I'm just going to take a picture for you." He snapped a couple and put the phone down.

I wanted to see it, but at the same time right then I didn't care what it looked like. I pulled myself up onto my knees and sat back on my heels, my head down and my hair hanging forwards over my shoulder. I could hear myself panting.

"Hold still while I tape it up." It took him a minute to stick a sheet of clear film over the tattoo to protect it. Then he rested his hand on the middle of my back.

I shivered. "Skorpa," I whimpered. I wanted him to touch me—ached for it.

He got up and knelt on the bed behind me. His arm came around my waist and I felt the heat of his chest against my back. He placed his other hand on the back of my head and pushed it down more. Then his lips touched my neck, his beard tickling my skin. I reached back and rested my hand on his knee, at last able to touch him. His teeth scraped the nape of my neck just below my hairline, then bit. I whined and he let go, soothing the bite with his tongue. I turned my head a little and his lips touched my ear. "Want me?" he whispered.

"Yes." My voice shook.

He moved back a little and let go of me, then took hold of the zip pull at the top of my skirt and slid it down until the fabric parted and fell off me onto the bed. He sucked in a breath and I imagined him staring at my bare arse, with only the strings of my thong left in place. I tossed the skirt off the bed onto the floor and a moment later Skorpa's shirt joined it. I glanced behind me as he unzipped his fly and pulled out his erection. He wasn't wearing underwear and I gasped as he gave himself a quick stroke. Everything seemed to be taking so long. I couldn't remember being so eager for sex in a long time. I moaned in frustration and made to turn around.

"Stay there." He gripped me by the hips and pulled me back towards him. I spread my knees apart and he pressed up against me. I was trembling and I took a breath to steady myself. Then he slid his hand around to my stomach and down between my legs, and I found I couldn't breathe at all. His fingers slipped inside the scrap of fabric that covered my well-pruned pubic hair, and stroked the most sensitive part of me. I writhed against him, and then he pulled the string of my thong aside and pushed into me from behind.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After bedroom fun, Skade and Skorpa go out for dinner without the other band members

I groaned and arched my back as he filled me. It was relief and anticipation at the same time. I wanted to touch him, but I rested both hands on the mattress in front of me, as he pulled almost all the way out of me, then slammed back in harder. He paused to shove his jeans down his thighs. I squirmed and squeezed tight around him, making him groan. He began to move again, fingers digging hard into my hips. The sound of flesh slapping against flesh filled the room, coupled with both of us panting and moaning our pleasure. I doubted I would come from this position without being touched at the same time, but it felt intense, with all of my senses heightened from the arousing feeling of being tattooed. I still wanted more.

I pushed myself upright so that I was practically sitting in his lap and changed the angle of his penetration. We both gasped and he slid his arms around me. He cupped my breasts through my top, then pulled the straps off my shoulders and drew the top and the bra down. Then his hands were on my flesh, squeezing and pinching the nipples. I squirmed, gyrating my hips and rocking back and forth.

"Fuck," he muttered, and slid one hand down my body to stroke between my legs as we moved together. Much too quickly, he jerked under me, groaning, as he came. His fingers moved faster and I tipped my head back against his shoulder, writhing as I reached orgasm. I slumped on his lap, panting, and he wrapped his arms around me again, his face in my neck.

I pulled away and slid off him, then turned around and put my arm around his neck. I hadn't had the opportunity to touch him or hold onto him, and we hadn't kissed once. I stroked his hair away from his face and brought our lips together. We kissed, open-mouthed, breathless and messy with no tongues, then gave up, laughing a little. We pulled apart and Skorpa got off the bed to take off his jeans. I quickly removed the scraps of clothing I wore and tossed them onto the floor, then lay down carefully on my left side. He joined me and rested his arm around my waist, his face inches from mine. I placed my hand on his chest and felt his heart pounding. I ran my hand over his damp skin, then slid my arm around his back and pressed closer. We lay there, holding onto each other and not talking, until our breathing slowed and the sweat on our bodies cooled.

"I haven't seen my tattoo yet," I murmured. My lips touched his shoulder as I spoke. I stayed there, kissing his skin and tasting salt.

He grabbed his phone from the cabinet behind me and rolled onto his back. A moment later he passed me the phone with a picture on the screen. The tattoo looked exactly like my pet and not only that—he had created an incredible three dimensional effect that looked as if the tarantula was walking across my back.

"It's amazing!" I beamed. "That seems like a really inadequate word. You're so good. I love it. Thank you, Skorpa." I turned my head and kissed him on the lips.

He cupped my face and slid his tongue into my mouth. I closed my eyes and melted into it. Our first proper kiss and it was hot and sensual, but lazy at the same time. When we parted, I rested my head on his shoulder, my eyes still closed. We lay there for a while, again not talking. I could feel his heart beating under my hand, slower now and steady. My shoulder began to hurt and I pulled away and sat up.

"Ow."

"Hurts?" He smiled. "The endorphins have settled. Keep it covered up for now. I'll put some Savlon on it later."

"Okay."

"You want to get something to eat?" he suggested. "If this was a proper hotel we could stay here and get room service, but that's not gonna happen unless I call one of the guys and send them out for food."

I laughed. "Yeah, that's not happening."

"Do you still want to go out? There's a Mexican restaurant here."

As much as I wanted to spend the rest of the day and night in bed with him, I nodded. "I'll just need to freshen up. And I don't have a coat with me."

"I'm sure I can find something for you to wear—again."

I got up and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. As I turned on the tap to fill the sink, I felt wetness on my thighs and the events of the last hour came rushing back in vivid detail. I was never this careless. I didn't sleep around—at least not much—but I'd never had unprotected sex except with one boyfriend when I was a teenager. Shit.

I cleaned up quickly, borrowed Skorpa's deodorant, and returned to the bedroom. He had placed a long-sleeved black shirt on the bed. "That will probably be a bit big on you but at least it's warm. We'll need to get a taxi anyway. The restaurant is a couple of miles away."

"All right." I nodded and began to get dressed.

Skorpa remained sitting on the bed, watching me. "What's up?" he asked eventually.

I realised I was frowning and biting my lip. I finished putting my clothes on and put his shirt over the top of my vest. "I didn't intend to do this," I began.

His smile vanished. "You regret the tattoo or the sex?"

"No! Neither. It's not that." I shook my head and flashed him a quick grin. "Damn, that was probably the hottest sex I've ever had."

He grinned and his eyes twinkled. "I could say the same."

"What I meant was I don't do it without protection. The whole thing was so intense I didn't think about it."

"Well, I did." He reached out and took hold of my hand. "I wouldn't put you at risk like that. I know I have a bad history, but I'm clean. I never shared needles or anything when I was doing that shit, and I never screwed without protection other than with my wife. I've been tested about a dozen times, too, just to be sure."

I relaxed and smiled again. "You didn't worry about me?"

"Nah."

"Not even about pregnancy?"

"Um—" His eyes widened.

"Clearly not. Shit, Skorpa. What if I end up pregnant? I never thought about that either."

His face paled and suddenly his eyes filled with pain, way more than could be attributed to sudden anxiety that our bit of fun could have got me pregnant.

"Hey, I was just joking. I'm on the pill."

He shook his head and pulled his hand out of mine.

"What did I say?" I moved closer. Suddenly, I had the awful feeling that I'd done something terrible; said something terrible. I didn't know what. I couldn't recall reading anything that might be connected to what had just happened.

"Nothing, it's okay." He stood up suddenly and smiled.

"If I did something wrong—" I pressed.

"Not now." He quickly kissed me on the forehead, then headed to the bathroom. "I'll be five minutes, then we'll get food."

I sat on the bed and waited. I didn't have my phone with me, or I would have tried to find out more about him, but maybe it was better to just leave it to him to tell me whatever it was. How could me joking about getting pregnant have resulted in such a reaction? Perhaps something to do with his wife.

When he came out of the bathroom, still naked, he looked relaxed again. I waited while he put some clothes on, then we left the room, and promptly ran into Aethelflaed and Erik in the corridor. Aethelflaed stared at me, eyes wide, but didn't say anything.

"Are you two going out?" Skorpa asked.

"Yeah, thought we'd get food," Erik said. "There's a nice Thai place in town."

"We're going for Mexican, but if you want to share a taxi it'll save waiting," Skorpa offered.

"Sure, okay."

The four of us travelled into the city together. The car dropped Erik and Aethelflaed outside the restaurant they had chosen, then continued for another couple of minutes and let us out at a small unobtrusive Mexican with a cactus on the sign at the front. Skorpa hadn't booked a table, but the place was quiet with only a couple of other tables occupied. We took a small table in the far corner away from the window. Suddenly it seemed like a date, something I hadn't done in a long time. I studied the menu while Skorpa ordered a jug of light Mexican beer for us to share.

It was a long time since I'd been to a nice Mexican restaurant and I couldn't decide what to eat, so we ordered a sharing platter of mini fajitas, burritos, enchiladas and quesadillas, with spicy rice, guacamole, and sour cream. We talked and laughed about various things that had happened on the tour so far while we waited for the food. Whatever had bothered Skorpa earlier seemed to have been forgotten.

"Shall we get some tequila sunrises with this?" he suggested after the food arrived.

"I hope you're joking. You can drink tequila if you want."

"I don't think so." He laughed and picked up a little quesadilla. "Try this."

I bit into the cheesy snack that he held out and hummed with pleasure. "I'd forgotten how good these were." As he made to put the other half in his mouth, I grabbed his hand and took it in my own, finishing by licking his fingers to get a little melted cheese that had oozed out.

He chuckled and leaned closer. "You're a tease."

I grinned. "No, I'm not."

His eyes darkened and he groaned. "Will you spend the night with me?"

"I might. I mean, I need to replace that hideous memory of the last time that happened with a better one."

Skorpa laughed again. "Trust me, having you tear off your top and shove your tits in my face wasn't what I'd call hideous."

I rolled my eyes. "The rest of it wasn't all that great. Number one on the list of how not to seduce a man, is pass out drunk and puke in his bathroom."

"So, you were aiming to seduce me?"

"Not then, obviously. But I had a good idea of what would happen if I let you tattoo me."

"Damn it, Skade, you don't know what you're doing to me." He broke the eye contact and picked up his beer.

"I think I can guess." I wasn't a flirty woman by nature, but I did have a habit of saying what I wanted, or otherwise making it obvious. I'd frightened away a couple of young shy guys in the past by being too upfront, but it was obvious that wasn't going to happen with Skorpa.

My opinion of him had changed pretty quickly. Now, when I looked at him, I saw a sexy man that I wanted to get close to, whereas when I'd first met him I couldn't imagine being attracted to him. I still didn't know much about him, and I had no idea where this would go. Maybe it would just be a tour hook-up, but I meant to enjoy it while I could. I leaned closer to him again and gave him a warm, slow kiss. "Yes," I whispered.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, I'll spend the night with you."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade spends the night with Skorpa, only this time she is sober

"Do you want me to pay half?" I offered, as Skorpa took out a credit card to settle the restaurant bill.

"No, it's on my management's tab." He grinned. "Might as well make the most of it."

We took a taxi back to the motel and by the time we reached the building, we struggled to keep our hands off each other. Skorpa slid his hand under the back of my shirt as we walked down the corridor, and touched my skin. When we reached his door, he pulled me hard against him and kissed my neck, while he fumbled with the key card and swiped it the wrong way.

"Give it to me." I snatched the card from him and turned towards the door.

He wrapped his arms around me from behind and bit my ear. "I'll give it to you, all right. Get the fucking door open."

Laughing, I swiped the card and the door clicked open. We stumbled, laughing, into the room, and Skorpa switched on the light, just as Gisela and Mildrith passed and turned to look at me with wide eyes and shocked faces. Skorpa hadn't seen them as he grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled my head back so he could kiss me on the mouth. I slammed the door closed and turned to face him. He thrust his tongue into my mouth, rough and eager, crushing my lips against my teeth. I clutched at him, feeling he was already hard as he pressed his body against mine. His hands seemed to be everywhere all at once—stroking and squeezing, tugging at buttons, zips, and clasps. Suddenly, I found myself wearing only my thong and my boots, the rest of my clothes scattered around us on the floor.

"Slick." I giggled.

Skorpa let go of me just long enough to toss his jacket onto a chair and peel off his shirt. Then he jerked me against him again, holding me tight as he kissed me hungrily. I toed off my boots and slid my hands between us to unfasten his jeans. As I pushed them down his thighs and wrapped my hand around his erection, he groaned into my mouth. He broke the kiss again and licked his way down my neck to my collarbone. "I want you so fucking much," he panted.

Even though we'd released some of the pressure earlier, we were no less eager. We quickly shed the last couple of items of clothing and tumbled onto the bed. Again, Skorpa's hands and mouth were all over me—stroking, kissing, licking, and biting, until I tingled with arousal and my body trembled all over. I pushed his hands off me and began to give him the same treatment. I explored every inch of him with my hands and mouth, sometimes soft and gentle with little kisses and licks, sometimes rough, sinking my teeth into his neck, or chest, or thighs, until he moaned and begged.

"Come here," he gasped eventually, and pulled me onto his lap.

I rested my hands on his chest, feeling his rapid heartbeat. "Oh, you want me in the driving seat?"

"You seem like the kind of woman who likes to be in charge. As much as I want to pound you into the mattress right now, I'll leave that until your back heals."

I smiled and guided his tip into me, teasing him as I stayed up on my knees and pinned him down to stop him driving himself deeper. He squirmed and cursed, then gripped my thighs and dragged me down hard onto him. We both gasped and I stayed there, gyrating my hips and squeezing him inside me. Gradually, I started to move again, up and down, until our sweat-slick skin slapped together, and the room filled with our moans and cries of pleasure. I always found being on top the easiest way for me to orgasm, and with the excitement having built up between us beforehand, it didn't take me long. I finished, shuddering, but continued to bounce and grind myself on him for another minute until he spilled inside me. Then I slid off him and collapsed on my side, remembering to be careful of my tattoo.

"Fuck me," Skorpa panted, and rubbed a hand over his wet face.

"Didn't we just do that?" I leaned over and kissed his shoulder. "You know, I didn't expect to be enjoying this quite so much as I am."

"I didn't expect to be getting the opportunity to enjoy it at all." He rolled over to face me and draped his arm across me.

I moved closer and kissed the corner of his mouth, then his jaw. His beard tickled my chin. He tilted his head down and brought our lips together again in a slow, sensual kiss that made my racing heart stutter. Reluctantly, I pulled away and got up to go to the bathroom.

I took a few minutes to pee, wash my face, and freshen up. The film covering my tattoo was hanging off, the tape ruined by my sweat. I took it off and put it in the bin, then borrowed Skorpa's toothbrush to clean my teeth.

I didn't know where things would go from here. I doubted it would be more than a tour fling. I reminded myself that he lived in Denmark, and we still knew hardly anything about each other. I remembered that he had mentioned his wife previously and for all I knew, he could still be married, although I didn't think it likely. He had said he didn't cheat. I was reluctant to ask, though. I felt as if I'd said something wrong earlier, but I wasn't sure what.

I returned to the bed and Skorpa took his turn in the bathroom. When he returned, he applied some Savlon to my tattoo with gentle fingers, then covered it with a dressing before he turned the light off. We lay together, idly touching each other but not really talking, as the aftermath of sex lulled us towards sleep.

When I woke, it was different from before in that I was facing him, and I knew exactly where I was. Daylight filled the room, and Skorpa continued to sleep peacefully beside me. I slipped away from him to use the bathroom and was contemplating taking a shower, when someone knocked on the door.

"Hey, Skorpa!" Ragnar shouted from outside. "It's after ten. We're rehearsing this morning, remember!"

"Shit," Skorpa muttered, clearly disturbed by the knocking and shouting. I went back into the bedroom, realising there probably wasn't time for a shower after all. "I'm up!" Skorpa shouted back to Ragnar. "Give me five minutes!"

I began to put my clothes on while Skorpa went to the bathroom. He returned with a small tub of Vaseline. "Put this on the tat twice a day and after showers."

"Thank you. I'd better get out of your way. We're rehearsing too, later."

Skorpa caught my hand and halted me. "Are we gonna do this again?"

I pursed up my lips like I wasn't sure. "I'll have to think about it."

He looked surprisingly disappointed as he let go of my hand, and I reached for him again with a smile. "I hope so," I said.

He grinned. "Still teasing me, huh? Tonight?"

I nodded. "See you later." Then I let myself out of the room.

Ragnar waited in the corridor a few feet away, leaning against the wall with his arms folded. He stared at me and grinned.

"Don't you say anything," I muttered as I walked past him.

He chuckled. "Wouldn't dream of it."

When I reached the motel room I was sharing with Gisela, I had to knock as I didn't have a key with me. She let me in quickly and I closed the door after me.

"You slept with him?" she asked at once.

"Well, it wasn't the first time." I smirked at her shocked face. "I was referring to when I passed out drunk and he took care of me."

"So, are you 'a thing' now?"

"I'm not sure. It's probably just a tour thing, but I don't know. We're getting together after the show tonight. I need a shower." I began to strip off my clothes again.

"Let me see your tattoo." Gisela peered at the back of my shoulder. "Wow, it looks so real! I can't say I'd want a spider crawling across my back, but I must admit, he's very talented."

"I know, it's awesome. We're rehearsing at the club today, right? The Vikings are on their way there now."

"Yes, for once we might get Brida joining us for a while other than at the club. Mildrith and I were talking about going for brunch."

"Count me in." I went to shower.

The others came to the room while I was drying my hair. "Apparently, you have something to tell us," was the first thing Brida said to me. "I can't believe you slept with Skorpa! Were you drunk again?"

"No, I was not drunk. I was seduced by his tattoo gun."

Brida smiled. "That's kind of hot, or it would be if it wasn't Skorpa."

"I still think you have dreadful taste in men," Mildrith said. "But if he makes you happy, who are we to judge?"

"It's just a bit of fun," I said casually.

"It seems intense to me, if he's tattooing you." Brida peered at the design. "He's good at it, though. Are you ready? I'm starving."

The five of us went to a diner together, then hung around in one of the motel rooms until the Vikings returned from the venue. Uhtred came to our door to let us know when they were back and I stepped outside to speak to him.

"So, you and Skorpa." He raised his eyebrows.

"Yes." I grinned. "I wasn't even drunk this time."

He laughed. "I told you he was into you."

I snorted as an image of exactly how much Skorpa had been into me flashed into my head.

"Shit, I didn't quite mean that the way it sounded." Uhtred actually reddened a little.

"Can I ask you something?" I glanced up and down the corridor, but no one else was around and the other girls were still in the room.

"Sure."

"Do you know if Skorpa is still married?"

"No, he's divorced. Why?"

"I just wondered. I haven't seen anything about his wife on the Net other than that they got married in 2002, and he told me once that he doesn't cheat so I doubted they were still together, but—"

"No, he's definitely single. You could just ask him, you know."

"Yeah, I said something yesterday that I think got to him in some way. I didn't want to put my foot in it if there was a sore point somewhere."

"Okay. I don't know anymore, though. Ragnar has known him a lot longer than the rest of us. I think they knew each other when Skorpa was still married, but they don't talk about it. Skorpa's pretty secretive about his personal life."

I shrugged. "I'm not snooping. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't about to be painted as a scarlet woman."

Uhtred grinned. "As far as I know he's been single for a long time. He didn't seem to even hook up with anyone when we were touring in Denmark, but that was when I met Iseult so I doubt I'd have noticed what anyone else was doing."

I smiled. "How is she?"

"Better today. She's discovered ginger tea which is helping with the sickness."

"That's good." The door burst open then, and the other girls came out. "You ready?" I asked.

"Yes, let's do it." Brida charged off down the corridor, tapping her drumsticks on the wall as she went.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade and Skorpa write a song together, and Skorpa prepares to tell Skade something about his past

Author's Note: Skorpa & Skade's song lyrics are borrowed from "Let it Go" by Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger

Chapter 10

The show that night went as well as all the others before it. Our following was growing and the reception we got from the Scottish rockers was amazing. Brida and I watched most of the Vikings' performance from the wings, and I found myself watching Skorpa's every move. He was a great frontman and as the hard fast music made my body vibrate, my heart pounded along with it in excitement. Reminding myself that the band lived in Denmark and that getting too involved wouldn't do me any good didn't really work.

Once the show was over and we'd spent some time mingling with the fans, I was just as eager as Brida and Aethelflaed to get back to the motel. As they went off to Ragnar and Erik's rooms, I went to Skorpa's. We fell upon each other like we were starving and later fell asleep wrapped around each other.

During the next couple of weeks, I spent more and more time with Skorpa. I didn't spend every night with him, only most of them. I kept telling myself it was fun and exciting, and I enjoyed the sex, but there was more to it. I didn't miss the way he looked at me when he thought I didn't notice, and it made my heart flutter. Part of me hoped that somehow things could continue when the tour was over.

We were in Wales now, although I couldn't remember which city we were in. They had all begun to blur into one as we zigzagged back down from Scotland, playing in all the venues that hadn't been able to fit us in on the way up. Tours often didn't happen in order. We had a night off and Gisela and I had been catching up on some sleep after a late night and a long and frustrating bus ride. I crawled out of bed, showered, and put some clothes on. I had a text from Skorpa asking me where I'd been all day and telling me his room number.

"Where are you going?" Gisela asked as I headed for the door. "Oh, don't tell me." She rolled her eyes.

I grinned and let myself out. Skorpa's room was on the floor above ours, and when I approached his door I heard him playing a guitar. It sounded like an acoustic one and wasn't plugged into an amp. I listened for a minute, then knocked. He opened the door quickly.

"Hey. Where've you been?" He pulled me into the room and kissed me.

"Sleeping." I glanced at the bed where his guitar lay, and noticed a notepad and pen too, and a keyboard on a stand stood nearby. He didn't usually have instruments in his motel rooms. "Are you writing?"

"Yes, something a bit different. Do you want to hear it?"

"I'd love to."

He sat back down on the bed and picked up the guitar. "It's a sort of rock ballad. It's not finished. I wrote the tune and the verses, but I need a bridge and chorus. Erik and Ragnar will need to put rhythm to it."

I sat cross-legged in front of him as he began to play the tune I'd heard from outside the door. Then he sang, deep and husky:

"Love that once hung on the wall

Used to mean something

But now it means nothing

The echoes are gone in the hall

But I still remember

The pain of December…"

He paused and playing a few bars. "Next verse:

"You came back to find I was gone

And that place is empty

Like the hole that was left in me

Like we were nothing at all

It's not what you meant to me

Thought we were meant to be…"

He stopped and grinned. "That's all I've got so far. I've just been messing around with it for an hour or so."

"You wrote that in an hour? Wow. I love it." I picked up the notepad to read the lyrics.

"Feel free to add to it if you like," he offered.

"Are you sure? I don't want to butt in."

"Go for it." He grinned.

I indicated the keyboard. "Can I?"

"Sure."

I sat on the chair in front of the instrument. "Can you play the tune without singing?"

Skorpa began to play and I picked out a few bars on the keyboard. It was set up to sound like a regular piano. After a few repetitions of the verse, I was playing the entire thing with him and adding extra notes. When I glanced at him, he was gazing at me with admiration. I paused.

"Let's go from the beginning. Could you sing the first verse?"

We started again and he sang. Lyrics began forming in my head as I listened to his voice. When he reached the last line: "The pain of December—" I continued.

"Oh, there isn't one thing left you could say

I'm sorry, it's too late—" I stopped. "I don't usually write like this. It's normally me in a room on my own. I feel sort of self-conscious."

"You've no reason to. Keep going."

"Okay." I took a deep breath. "Start again?"

We started from the beginning. When Skorpa finished singing the verse, I added the bridge, then carried on:

"I'm breaking free from these memories

Gotta let it go, just let it go

I've said goodbye, set it all on fire

Gotta let it go, just let it go."

Skorpa stopped playing. "That's exactly what I was looking for."

"Serious?"

"Yeah." He smiled. "You're talented."

"Thanks."

"I want to try something else. Will you sing the first verse?"

"Okay."

We ran through the song again with me singing the first verse and the bridges, both of us singing the chorus, and him singing the second verse. When we finished, he put his guitar down and wrote out the lyrics for the parts I had added. I left the keyboard and sat on the bed with him.

"This isn't your usual style."

He shrugged and smiled. "It was just an idea I had."

"I really like it," I added.

"Maybe we should sing it at the last show. Give our followers more to talk about."

"We?"

"Would you? If I decided to do it, would you join us on stage and sing it with me?"

It wasn't what I expected from him. It seemed like a pretty intimate thing to do, but then again, like he said, it would get people talking—Pagan Rock followers as well as the Vikings fans.

"Sure, I'll do it if you want to," I agreed.

"In that case, let's run through it again and I'll record it on my phone. Erik and Ragnar will need to work on it."

"I'll record it too, so I can practise."

We set our phones up, I got back behind the keyboard, and we played the song again. The moment we stopped, someone knocked on the door.

Skorpa grinned. "Either that's the management complaining about the noise, or we've got an audience." He got up and opened the door to find Erik and Aethelflaed outside.

"Writing without us?" Erik teased. "Bit soft for you, Skorpa."

"I'll look for another drummer to work on it with, shall I? Get in here."

Erik and Aethelflaed came into the room and closed the door. "I was just playing around," Skorpa said. "It wasn't meant to be much of anything, then Skade wrote some of it. I want to play this at the last show. I'm sending you a recording of what you just heard." A moment later Erik's phone beeped. "You got time to work on it with Ragnar?"

"Sure, I guess. We've still got two weeks until the last show. We're on our way out with Ragnar and Brida, so I'll talk to him about it then. Are you gonna play lead?"

Skorpa nodded. "We won't need Uhtred and Sihtric for this, or it'll be drowning in guitars."

"You gonna have a keyboard on stage?"

"Yeah."

"Mildrith's will already be set up from our performance," I said. "I can use hers." Suddenly, I was excited. Playing and singing a duet with Skorpa at the biggest show of the tour—the Astoria in London—would be something else.

Erik and Aethelflaed left us, and the moment the door closed behind them, Skorpa pulled me close and kissed me. There wasn't the usual heat in it—it was slow and sensual. When it ended, he held me tight and pressed his face into my hair. He seemed different from usual—almost as if he didn't want to let go of me. The song-writing had surprised me, too. I ran through the lyrics in my head. It wasn't a love song—it was about loss. Had he based it on something specific?

"Skorpa, are you okay?" I murmured.

"Yeah." He loosened his grip on me. "Not really. I want to tell you something. I just don't know if it's a good idea."

"You can tell me anything you want."

He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I don't open myself up to anyone about this. Not even the band. Ragnar knows, but only because he was around then."

"You can tell me," I repeated.

He let go of me then and moved away a little. I studied him, wondering what he was about to tell me. Obviously something about his past, and it didn't seem like it would be anything good. His hand shook as he reached for mine and gripped it tightly.

"Well, you know I was married. But I doubt you know we had a kid."

"No." My eyes widened.

"We kept it quiet. Mette didn't like being in the public eye and she didn't want that for our daughter either. You could probably find a couple of things if you looked hard enough." He swallowed.

I squeezed his hand. "I'm listening."


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skorpa tells Skade about his daughter and his past

Chapter 11

"She was born in early 2003. We named her Emilie." Skorpa stopped and ran a hand through his hair, avoiding my eyes. Then he pulled his hand out of mine again and folded his arms. "This was a bad idea."

I could see from his haunted expression that he wasn't going to tell me a happy story. I wondered if perhaps his ex-wife wouldn't let him see the girl. I couldn't imagine what it would be like even to have a child, but that had to hurt. I didn't know what to say either but I did my best.

"You don't have to tell me anything you don't want. But if you do want to talk about it, you can trust me."

"I know that." He got up and began pacing around the room. "She would have been twelve this week."

Would have been? My breath caught in my throat. "Skorpa, what happened?" I whispered.

"She was six. I was supposed to drive them to Mette's parents' house for a visit. Her parents always hated me. They thought I wasn't good enough for her. They were right. Mette and I had a huge fight about her siding with them to keep the peace, and I started drinking. She said something like, 'Go on, drink the whole bottle and pass out.' Then she took Emilie in her own car and they went without me." He was still pacing, and my gaze followed him back and forth across the room.

"If I'd swallowed my stupid temper and just taken them there myself, they'd have been in my Cadillac Escalade. It's a huge four by four, built like a tank. They went in her beat-up old Mini, so when a half-blind old guy who shouldn't have been on the road hit them head on, they didn't have a chance."

"Oh, Skorpa," I groaned. I didn't know if he even realised he had tears running down his face. I got up.

"They said Emilie died instantly. Mette had a head injury and broke both legs, but she survived. The first thing she said to me when she came out of the coma was that it was my fault our daughter was gone, and she never wanted to see me again." He turned away and punched the wall, leaving a dent in the plaster.

"I'm so sorry." I went to him and slid my arms around him. I didn't know what else to do. He was shaking, and for a moment he hugged me back. Then he pushed me away, went into the bathroom, and closed the door. I sat on the bed thinking about what he'd told me, and trying unsuccessfully to imagine the pain of losing a child, and being blamed for it. Skorpa probably blamed himself, without Mette having done so.

I waited a while. He stayed in the bathroom for half an hour, with the shower running for most of that time. When he finally emerged, he wore only a towel and droplets of water ran out of his wet hair.

"I wasn't sure if you'd still be here." He sat down next to me.

"Do you really think I'd leave you alone after what you just told me?" I slid my hand into his.

"I'm okay. Sometimes it's worse than others. Like I said, I don't talk about it. Only Ragnar knows the details, and that's because he scraped my arse off the floor when I overdosed. I'm guessing you read about that part."

"Yes."

"The press said I fell off the wagon again."

I nodded.

"I'm sorry." He forced a smile.

"Whatever are you saying sorry for?"

"Being like this. I'm not great company today."

"That doesn't matter. I'm glad you told me and I hate that you hurt so much. I can't do anything to help, but you can talk to me. I'd like to know more about you."

He grinned now. "There isn't much to tell that the press hasn't already painted a black picture of."

"They paint a black picture of everything. If I believed all that shit, you'd be—"

"A drunk, a drug addict, and a rapist?"

"Exactly, but I know you're not any of those, so tell me something. How'd did you get into music for example?"

"Hell, I'm not sure I can remember that far back." He wrapped his arm around me instead. "I was sixteen. My parents were strict and we lived in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Me and this other kid I knew from school stole a bottle of whiskey from a fuel station and got drunk. After my father stopped beating my arse for it, the police turned up at the door and he let them arrest me. I spent a night in a cell as punishment, while the other kid's dad bailed him out and talked to him instead. The next day, I left home and took a bus to Alborg which was the nearest city. It's up in the north of Denmark. I lived on the streets for a week until I found a factory job and I rented a room. One of my workmates was Bjorn who you might remember was the drummer in the first line-up of the Vikings."

"Yes, I remember. My dad used to listen to your music."

"Thanks for making feel even older."

I laughed. He seemed better already. Perhaps because he had been living with this heartbreak so long, if it became overwhelming it didn't last. Or maybe it really did help having me there.

He told me about how the Vikings got together, and later about meeting Mette. She was friends with a girl their manager was dating, and her parents did their best to interfere when she started seeing Skorpa. Eventually, he showed me a photo in his phone of a little blonde girl with pigtails—Emilie. Then he put the phone away.

"Enough about me. I never tell anyone all that shit."

"I liked hearing it."

"Well, I'd rather hear about you. Do you want to get some food first?"

"Sure."

Skorpa searched for takeaway options on his phone and ordered some Chinese food to be delivered so we didn't have to go out. We didn't leave his room for the rest of the evening, and later we played the new song several times until a guest in the next room banged on the wall. Then we fell into bed. In the morning, Skorpa seemed like he normally did. It was as if telling me about Emilie had helped shake off the unhappy mood he'd been in. I didn't breathe a word of it to any of the others.

A few days' later, we were in some other city in the west of England, and I hung out at the motel with the other girls while the Vikings rehearsed at the club we were playing that night. I went back to the room I shared with Gisela, plugged headphones into my phone, and practised the new song some more. The others didn't know about it yet, so when Gisela and Mildrith came into the room and caught me singing, they were immediately curious.

"What are you singing?" Mildrith asked. "It sounds sort of ballady."

"It's called 'Let it Go.' Skorpa wrote it."

"For us?" Gisela frowned.

"No, for them. I worked on it with him a little bit. It's a duet."

"I can't really imagine you singing a duet with Skorpa. He doesn't do ballads," Mildrith said.

"Well, it works. He wants me to sing it with him at the last show in London."

"And you're going to?" Gisela asked. "That's pretty intense."

"Not really. It's just a song. Anyway, it'll probably be good for our band. Erik and Ragnar are putting drums and bass to it."

"We hardly see you anymore. You haven't spent one night away from him this week," Gisela said.

"And?"

"Are you in love with him?"

"Don't be stupid," I scoffed. "I like his company. We get on well." I glanced at the two of them, both frowning. "And he's hot as hell in bed," I added, laughing as the frowns turned to grimaces.

"You're getting talked about." Mildrith took out her phone and searched for something. She turned it around to show me a picture of Skorpa and me outside the stage entrance of one of the clubs we'd played. We weren't touching each other, but our lips were inches apart and he was gazing at me like he adored me. It was shared on Twitter over a hundred times with various captions: 'Skade and Skorpa romance;' 'Lucky Skorpa;' and 'Skade seduces Skorpa to gain fans.'

"Shit," I muttered. "This is crap."

"There are similar posts about how Brida and Ragnar, and Aethelflaed and Erik always being together. Brida and Ragnar haven't even tried to be discreet. There are pictures of them kissing everywhere you look and comments about how she only let him get into her pants because it'll get her talked about. She says she doesn't give a shit."

I checked my own phone and realised then I had a missed called from Aelswith from an hour earlier. I hadn't noticed because I'd been singing.

"Shit," I said again. "Aelswith called."

"You'd better call her back," Gisela told me. "She'll have seen what people are saying for sure."

"There is good news," Mildrith put in. "Our album's up to number twenty-six. Five places behind the Vikings."

"Yeah, I know." I nodded, and called Aelswith's number. "Let's see what she has to say."


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade rehearses the new song with Skorpa, Ragnar, and Erik

Chapter 12

"Hello, Skade."

I touched a button on the phone and placed it on the bed. "Hi, Aelswith. You're on speaker. Gisela and Mildrith are here, too."

"I'm sure you know what I called about."

"To congratulate us. We're up to twenty-six in the rock charts, and gaining fans every day," I said brightly.

Gisela frowned and shook her head.

"Well, yes. Things are going well in that regard. I'm more concerned about the comments you're getting about your activities with members of the Vikings."

"People always twist things," I said. "Everyone hooks up on tour."

Mildrith's eyes widened.

"Apart from you two," I mouthed silently.

"It's true, then?" Aelswith said. "It's obvious with Brida and Ragnar, but I'm a little surprised at Aethelflaed. As for you—I seem to remember your reaction when I told you who you'd be touring with."

"I like Skorpa," I told her. "I didn't expect to, but I do. On the whole, the comments we're getting are good. There are always going to be a few idiots that say we're screwing them to get further in the business."

Mildrith and Gisela winced.

"Skorpa often gets bad press," Aelswith went on. "Your personal lives are up to you of course, but I'm concerned that if anything happens with him, he'll drag you down, too."

"Then why did you sign us up to tour with him?" I snapped. "Look, things are going great. He's fine. He's not drinking or doing drugs. He hasn't got in any kind of trouble. Also, we wrote a song together. We're going to play it at the last show. He thought it would be a good ending for the tour."

"Oh!" I could imagine the look of surprise on Aelswith's round face. "You wrote a new song with Skorpa?"

"Mostly, it's his work. I wrote the chorus. It's a kind of ballad, not like their usual stuff or ours. Erik and Ragnar are involved with the backing, Skorpa's playing guitar, and I'm playing piano."

"We'll need to make sure you're credited for your work on the song," Aelswith said immediately.

"It's unofficial so far. We haven't talked about recording it."

"Well, maybe I should talk to the Vikings' manager about recording it. Something this new and different will create a lot of gossip. This could actually do you a lot of good."

I raised my eyebrows and smirked at Gisela and Mildrith. "We'll talk about it when we get back," I said. "I assume you're not going to tell us to stay in our rooms like good little girls and keep our pants on?"

Aelswith tutted. "Like I said, that is your business. But please don't let me see you in any 'situations' on the front page of anything."

"You won't. See you in a week." I ended the call.

Brida and Aethelflaed joined us again a few minutes later. "Where'd you get to?" Brida asked. "We hardly get to see each other except on stage."

"Aelswith called," I said. "Aethelflaed, she's shocked at you for hooking up with Erik."

Aethelflaed blushed.

"What about me?" Brida threw herself on my bed, boots and all.

"She's not surprised at you."

"I bet she's surprised at you, though." Brida grinned. "How is Skorpa?"

"Fine."

"They wrote a song," Gisela said.

Brida rolled over and stared at me. "You wrote a song with Skorpa? When?"

"Last week. I didn't really have that much to do with it. He wrote the tune on guitar and piano, and most of the lyrics. I just added the chorus. But we're gonna sing it together at the last show."

"Wow. Is it just you and Skorpa, or you and the Vikings, or—?"

"Erik and Ragnar are going to be involved."

"Ragnar never said anything!" Brida glared.

"Well, don't have a go at him. It's no secret, but it's new," I explained. "I just told Aelswith about it, though. She said she's going to speak to their manager about maybe recording it. I don't know if that's on the cards. Skorpa was only messing around writing. It's not for an album or anything."

"You could make a mint out of it," Brida said. "Can you sing it for us?"

"We've already heard some of it," Mildrith put in smugly.

I took out my phone again and found the recording. I had to admit, even such a casual recording sounded good. Mine and Skorpa's voices blended perfectly.

"Wow," Aethelflaed and Brida said together.

A moment later there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Brida shouted without bothering to check who it was.

Skorpa and Ragnar came in. "The stage is free whenever you guys want to practise," Ragnar said.

"Playing our song?" Skorpa grinned at me.

"Yeah. Our manager called. She was concerned about some of us getting involved with some of you. I told her about the song to give her something else to think about," I admitted. "I think she might be calling your manager about, um, maybe recording it?" I avoided looking at him, unsure if he would be pissed off.

"Would you be up for that?" he asked.

"Yes, if you are." I relaxed. "I thought it was just meant to be casual."

"Let's see how it goes at the show. If the audience likes it, we could record it. I doubt we'd put it on an album, but we could probably do a one-off single release or something like that."

"That would be great. Do you think we should practise it all together before we perform it?"

"That's what we're doing here," Ragnar said. "We're going to come back to the club with you and run through it a couple of times. Erik's still there. This is the last opportunity we'll have to rehearse before we get to the Astoria. Your keyboards are already set up. Aethelwold came over this morning with our roadies."

"Great. I'm ready." Brida sprang up and went to Ragnar. He wrapped his arms around her.

Half an hour later, we were at the club, having travelled there on the Vikings' bus. Their equipment was set up, with Brida's drumkit in front of Erik's as usual, and Mildrith's keyboards at one side of the stage. We moved them into the position where Gisela usually played her guitar, and placed one of the mics in front of them. Suddenly, I was nervous, but not nearly as much as I imagined I would be at the Astoria. This was the first time of singing the song in front of anybody other than Skorpa.

The rest of the girls stood out of the way at the side of the stage, Erik sat down at his drumkit, and Ragnar grabbed his bass. Skorpa had an acoustic guitar with an amp that would compliment the piano.

"We'll run through the back-up first, Skade," Erik said. "You haven't heard what we've done with it yet."

"Okay, good." Relieved, I waited while Erik, Ragnar, and Skorpa played the music without the singing. The drums and bass filled it out perfectly, and I imagined the piano laid over the beat as they played. When they finished, I went to the keyboards and switched on. Erik counted in again, and we started to play.

My fingers flew over the keys and I counted the bars in my head, then started singing the first verse. All eyes were on me—it almost felt like the first time I'd performed to an audience. Skorpa joined in singing when I reached the chorus, and took over for the next verse. When it ended with a bit of ad-libbing, the girls cheered and clapped.

"It's awesome!" Brida exclaimed. "The audience is gonna love it. Shame you're not playing it here."

"Yeah, we'll save it for the Astoria," Skorpa said. "It'll be the first song of the encore. Let's run through it again, then we'll get out of your way so you can rehearse."

We played the song again, then the guys left us and went back to the motel. Mildrith sent Aethelwold a text and asked him to collect us in the minibus in a couple of hours.

That night's show went as well as all the others before. Aethelwold's note on my set list told me we were in Wolverhampton. Only three more shows to go before we would be in London. I had already looked up the dates for the Astoria and seen that our show was sold out. Its capacity was the same as Nottingham's Rock City at two thousand.

Later, Skorpa and I lay in bed talking about how things were going. "I want your opinion on something," he said.

"Okay."

"We've got two options. One, surprise the audience with the new song in the encore like we said. Or two, give them a hint that we have something new. There'll be a couple of magazine photographers there anyway—Kerrang and Metal Hammer at least. If I post something on Twitter beforehand, we'll probably get more out of it. Also, if we fire up the audience and they have an idea of what's coming, there'll be a couple of thousand phones out and it'll be on You Tube in less than an hour. If they like it, they'll be begging to buy it before we can even think about getting into the studio."

I rolled over and leaned on his chest so I could look down at him. "I like option two the best."

"Okay. Let's do it." He reached for his phone.

By the time we were eating breakfast in a coffee shop the next morning, Skorpa's tweet had been shared over a thousand times. All he'd said was that he would be showcasing a new song at the Astoria on Saturday and that Skade from Pagan Rock might just be involved, too. The other Vikings shared it, and I did the same. Within minutes, Brida and Mildrith had shared it and more and more people began following us.

I couldn't wait for Saturday. The show would be amazing. But at the same time, I felt sad that it was coming to an end. Being on the road had been constantly exciting, but in addition to that, I had no idea what would happen with Skorpa. Had it really just been a tour fling, or would we get to see each other afterwards? If he and his band returned to Denmark, I couldn't see that happening. The extent of my disappointment surprised me, and I hoped that somehow, it wouldn't be an end to whatever it was we had.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade has a pregnancy scare and a fight with Skorpa

Chapter 13

The next morning, we travelled to yet another city and had checked into the motel there by early afternoon. As usual, I had a room with Gisela although I doubted I would sleep in it. I threw my bag into a corner and pulled out my phone to check social media. The news of the new song was still being shared everywhere, and people who had tickets to the last show were excited.

Gisela unpacked some of her things, then disappeared into the bathroom. She emerged a moment later, muttering, and dug into her bag again.

"What's up?" I asked without looking at her.

"Oh, nothing, damn period started. Have you got any supplies? I've run out."

"Sure, in my bag. Help yourself."

She took the box out of my bag and went back into the bathroom. I put my phone down, frowning. We were on the last few days of the tour. It was a six-week tour. My last period was before I got drunk. "Shit!" I exclaimed, as Gisela emerged again.

"What?"

"I'm late."

Her eyes widened. "How late?"

"Um, a week. Or so." I dragged a hand through my hair. "You remember that night I got blind drunk? Skorpa said I puked, and I had a bad stomach for a couple of days after. It could have affected my pill."

"But surely you're using condoms."

"No."

"Skade! You're having unprotected sex with Skorpa?"

"It's fine, we talked about it. I mean, he's fine. Arrggghh!" I got up and paced around, clenching my fists. "Fuck!"

"You'd better get a test. At least then you'll know. You don't want to be stressing about this at the show tonight."

"Yeah, I know. I'll go and find a pharmacy. Do me a favour. Don't tell the others." I found my wallet.

"I won't. Are you going to tell Skorpa?"

"Not until I know if there's anything to tell him." I slipped out of the room and left the motel. This one was at the end of a main street with plenty of shops around, so I doubted it would be difficult to find a pharmacy.

"Skade! Wow, look, it's Skade!" a girl shouted.

Immediately, three girls and a guy rushed towards me and inwardly, I groaned.

"We're coming to your show tonight," the guy said.

"Your music is awesome," one of the girls added. "We saw you on You Tube. We're not really into the Vikings, but we got tickets so we could see Pagan Rock."

"That's great, thanks so much." I put on a smile and chatted to them for a minute, letting them take my picture with each of them. Finally, they left, but I'd barely gone fifty metres when a couple of young guys approached me. By the time I spotted a pharmacy, I didn't want to go in and buy something as revealing as a pregnancy test in case anyone else saw me and broadcast it, so I walked past the shop. A few minutes passed, and no one else seemed to recognise me, but as I turned back to walk the other way, I ran into Uhtred.

"What do you want?" I grumbled as he came up to me.

"Nice way to greet a friend. Especially since you've practically ignored me for the last week. I never see you without Skorpa now."

"I'm sorry. I didn't expect to be so caught up with him."

"I'm teasing. What are you doing out here?"

"I just needed to get something from, um, a shop."

"Which shop?" He looked up to see we were now standing in front of the pharmacy.

"Nothing that would interest you," I said.

He grinned. "Girl products?"

I scowled.

"Come on, Skade, don't tell me you're embarrassed to be seen buying them. You want me to get them for you? I have three sisters and a wife-to-be. I'm used to it."

"It's not that."

"What then?" He chuckled. "Condoms?"

"No!" My face burned. "Leave me alone, Uhtred."

Two girls came up to us at that moment, and we were forced to put on smiles and pose for a picture. By the time they left, my temper was rising and I was more anxious than before.

"I need to get a—" I dropped my voice to a whisper, and then had to repeat it because he didn't hear me. His eyes widened.

"Aren't you being careful?"

"Don't you start. I already had this from Gisela."

"Shall I just go and buy the thing for you? We'll talk about why you need it later."

"All right. Thank you," I muttered.

He disappeared into the shop and five minutes later, came out with his hands in his pockets. I raised my eyebrows.

"It's in my inside pocket. Let's go back to the motel."

We walked quickly back and headed down the corridor towards the rooms. I paused outside the room I shared with Gisela, but several voices could be heard within. "Your room," I said to Uhtred, keen to get it out of the way.

I hurried into his bathroom, peed on the stick, then emerged to wait for it. I paced and fretted, cursing my stupidity. I'd never had a scare before, but I'd never got sick on the pill and then had unprotected sex with someone either.

"Fuck," I muttered. "Fuck! I'm an idiot."

"Well, we know that," Uhtred teased. "Weren't you even a little bit worried about sleeping with him without a condom?"

"No, we discussed it." I snatched up the test from the table and looked at it. "There's a line on it. Shit!"

"Just one line?"

"Yes!" I began to panic.

"It's negative. If it was positive, there would be two lines. It's the same kind of test Iseult had. Look." He held up the box with its diagram, which I hadn't bothered to examine beforehand in my haste.

Relief rushed through me. "Thank fuck for that. I don't know what I would have done if—"

I was interrupted by a firm knock on the door. "Skade? Is that you?"

"Shit," I hissed. It was Skorpa.

Uhtred calmly put the test packaging in a drawer and went to open the door. I still had the plastic wand in my hand and I hid it behind my back.

"What's she doing in here? Skade?" Skorpa walked past Uhtred without looking at him.

"We, uh, we were just talking," I said.

"About what? You don't know what you would have done if—what?" He stared at me and came closer.

"I was going to—" I stopped as he grabbed my arm and pulled it from behind my back, revealing the test clutched in my hand. His eyes widened and he let go of me. "It's negative," I said.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded. "Why are you sneaking around with Uhtred?"

"I just wanted to find out one way or the other before I said anything to you. I was worried that you'd—"

"What? That I might care? That I'd support you?" Skorpa shouted suddenly. "Or maybe you just didn't want me to know in case it went the other way? Would you have got rid of it?"

"No, I—" Shocked, I took a step back, and immediately he did the same. He looked furious and hurt at the same time. He turned away and slammed out of the room.

"What the hell was that about?" Uhtred came to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I don't know why he's so mad."

"I joked about it once, the first time we were together, and he was kind of upset," I said slowly. "I think I know what it's about, but I can't tell you. I'll just talk to him later."

"Why can't you tell me?"

"Because it's not my story to tell. I'm fine, Uhtred. Don't worry. At least I haven't got pregnancy to worry about right now. Thanks, by the way."

"Hey, any time. We're friends, aren't we?" He gave me a hug. "You want to hang out here for a while?"

"No, I'll go back to my room. Gisela will want to know what's happening."

"You missed all the fun," Brida told me as she and Ragnar left our room. "We're all over You Tube."

"That's good. I'll watch it later."

Luckily, no one else was in the room other than Gisela. I closed the door and leaned on. "It's negative," I said quickly.

"You did it already?"

"Yes, I ran into Uhtred. It sounded like there was a party going on in here, so I went to his room. Anyway, at least I don't have to worry about it now."

"And you won't have to tell Skorpa."

"He knows. He overheard me talking to Uhtred. The walls in this place are paper-thin. He's mad as hell that I didn't tell him earlier. I need to talk to him, but I'm gonna leave him to calm down."

"What's his problem? At least it was negative, right?"

"Yeah."

I went looking for Skorpa a couple of hours' later, but he didn't answer when I knocked on his door, so I didn't know if he was avoiding me, or had gone out. Consequently, by the time we arrived at the club I was still anxious because I hadn't had the opportunity to speak to him. I determinedly put it out of my mind when it was time for us to go on stage. When our show was over, I went straight back to the dressing room to avoid Skorpa. With half an hour to go before his performance, it wasn't the right time to talk anyway. It would have to wait.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skorpa and Skade talk about the pregnancy test, and the bands play their last show in London

Chapter 14

Brida and Aethelflaed watched the Vikings from the wings, while I stayed in the dressing room with Gisela and Mildrith. None of the other girls knew what had happened that day. I sat in a corner, scowling at the wall as I fretted about talking to Skorpa. Gisela glanced at me sympathetically a couple of times and eventually, Mildrith asked me if I was okay.

"It's nothing," I muttered.

"Is it Skorpa? You're usually in each other's pockets before the shows, but—"

"He's pissed off with me. I had a pregnancy test—"

Mildrith gasped.

"It's negative," I said quickly. "But I didn't tell him until after I got the result, and Uhtred was with me when I did it." It seemed like a plausible explanation for Skorpa being angry.

"Then he's being an idiot," Mildrith said. "You and Uhtred are friends."

"Yeah, well. We'll sort it out later."

The Vikings' show seemed endless that night. The main performance eventually came to an end, and they stomped down the stairs to the dressing room. Then ten minutes later they went back up for their encore. After that, we all headed out into the club to meet some of the audience. I saw him from a distance, but I couldn't get away from the clamouring Pagan Rock fans until another hour had gone by. Then, finally, I went to look for him, but he was nowhere to be found. I spotted Uhtred at the bar and went over to him.

"Have you seen Skorpa?" I asked him.

He pointed upwards. "On the balcony."

Relieved, I set off up to the mezzanine above the dancefloor. There were booths up there with couches and low tables, similar to the set up in Nottingham. I found Skorpa sitting in one alone, a pint of beer on the table in front of him. I sat down next to him.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you," he said before I could speak.

"It doesn't matter. I get why you were mad. I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away."

"Why didn't you?"

"I didn't want to upset you. I didn't know how you'd feel about it after what you told me about Emilie. I didn't go running to Uhtred; that was accidental. I went into town to get a test and bumped into him. People kept recognising us and I was worried I'd be seen buying the test and it would end up on Twitter or something, so I told him and he went to buy it for me. Then when I went to my room in the motel, it was full of people watching us on You Tube. I just wanted to get it done and find out."

He nodded. "I thought you were on the pill."

"I am. But I was sick a week before we first got together, remember? I thought that might have affected it. It's probably just the different routine, eating shit food, and all the excitement and everything screwing up my body."

"Would you have told me?" he asked.

"If it was positive, I would have. I wouldn't have 'got rid of it' as you put it. Not until we decided together what we wanted to do."

He smiled and slid his arm around me. "For the record, I would have want to know, whatever the result. I'm sorry I was such a dick."

"I get it." I kissed his cheek, then blinked at the flash of a camera. "Shit. That'll be on Twitter in the next couple of minutes, then."

Skorpa grinned. "It might do me some good. You, not so much." He withdrew his arm from around me. "Do you want a drink?"

"Yes, please."

He got up and went to the bar, leaving me at the table. Immediately, a girl and a guy came up. "Hi, Skade. Could we get your picture, please?"

"Sure. Didn't you just get one, though?"

The girl giggled. "Are you and Skorpa together?"

"Ah, we're just messing around. Do you want to sit down here and get a selfie?"

"Yes!" The guy was quick to slide into the booth and sit practically on my lap. After a couple of pictures with each of them, they left me alone. Skorpa returned with a pint of cider.

"Thanks, I'm ready for this." I gulped half of it. "So, a couple more days and we'll be in London."

"Looking forward to the finale?" Skorpa grinned. "There's a lot of talk about the new song."

"I know. I saw the show was sold out."

We stayed where we were talking for a while, and later Uhtred and Sihtric joined us. Eventually, the music stopped and the lights came on. We went back to the motel and split up to go to our rooms.

I woke the next morning in the same position I'd been in the night I got drunk—with Skorpa moulded to my back and his arms around me. He was still sleeping and I lay still, thinking about the next couple of days. What would happen after the London show? Would this be over? We hadn't talked about whether we would see each other again. Brida had said Ragnar was already making plans to stay in England to be with her, and Aethelflaed intended to spend a couple of weeks in Denmark with Erik while they decided what they wanted to do. Skorpa hadn't mentioned what he wanted.

When we started sleeping together, I hadn't expected to want to continue things after the tour. It had been fun and exciting—our first time right after he tattooed me, and ever since, unable to keep our hands off each other, but was there any more to it? How did I really feel about him?

He stirred then, and rather than do what he usually did, which was to start kissing and touching me all over again, he drew away from me and got up. A couple of minutes later, he was in the shower. When he emerged, he had a towel wrapped around him and he didn't look at me as he started getting dressed. I got up and went to take my turn in the shower. Perhaps he had been thinking about what would happen after London, too. It seemed like he was putting some distance between us, and I assumed from that he intended to go back to Denmark. I didn't want to think about saying goodbye to him, but it wasn't as if we were in love with each other. It was just fun and sex, right?

The last couple of days of the tour flew by, and suddenly we were at the Astoria. A few more hours, and it would all be over. As Brida headed out onto the stage, followed by the other girls, the crowd's cheering and stamping filled the venue. My pulse quickened with excitement as I waited in the wings for the introduction to our first song. Then I jogged out there and grabbed the mic.

"Hello, London!"

The cheer that came back was deafening.

"We're Pagan Rock! Hope you enjoy the show!"

More applauding. Then I began to sing. The response to each song was the best we'd had so far, and the power of social media had clearly done us a lot of favours. When I introduced each member of the band, the applause grew louder still, and for most of the show we were repeatedly blinded by camera flashes. Six official photographers were set up in front of the stage, one wearing a shirt with the Kerrang! logo on it. When we took our final bow and left the stage, the crowd began to chant: "More! More!"

Reluctantly, we returned to the dressing room. It was over. I collapsed into a chair in the corner and wiped my sweaty face on a towel. It came away with streaks of eyeliner on it.

"That was amazing," Brida said. "I wish we could go back out there."

"Wait until we're headlining and we can do encores." Gisela grinned. "We'll have our own support band."

"You're so lucky, Skade. At least you get another song," Mildrith reminded me.

"I'm gonna get changed." I got up again and went into the small bathroom to have a quick wash and reapply my eye makeup. It would be about an hour and a half before I went back on stage with the Vikings and I couldn't wait.

By the time the Vikings were into their second song, I was ready in another outfit—a short leather skirt and a strappy top to show off both my tattoos. Brida and Aethelflaed were already up in the wings watching the band, and I went to join them. As usual, Ragnar was nearest to us and Brida snapped away with her camera phone. She must have had thousands of pictures of Ragnar by now.

I took a few photos of the band, and a few of Skorpa. As usual, he wore leather trousers that looked like he'd poured himself into them, and a black shirt, partly unfastened with the sleeves rolled up. Every so often he swung the mic stand around, making Uhtred and Sihtric dodge and the audience roar. When they finished their last song and left the stage to thunderous applause, Brida, Aethelflaed and I followed them down to the dressing rooms.

"Skade." Skorpa grabbed me outside the door. "You ready?"

"Yes."

"When we go back out, be ready in the wings. I'll introduce the song and tell you when to join me. Aethelwold!" He spotted our roadie and pointed up the stairs. "Keyboards."

"On it." Aethelwold jogged up the stairs to the stage. He was greeted with more excitement from the crowd.

"I need some water. See you in a few minutes." Skorpa left me and disappeared into the Vikings' dressing room.

I waited in the corridor until the band emerged again, then followed them up the stairs. The other girls came out, too, intending to watch the duet from the wings. Uhtred and Sihtric, not needed for the moment, stayed off the stage.

The cheering and stamping of the crowd became louder as the band took up their positions, then settled as Skorpa lifted his hands and lowered them. He took his mic off its stand. "We have something special for you tonight," he began. "Some of you might have heard I wrote a new song with Skade. We're gonna—"

His voice was drowned out by more applause, and he stopped, grinning, until they quietened again.

"We're gonna sing it for you right now. Come on out, Skade!"

As I walked onto the stage, Skorpa put his mic back on its stand and grabbed his acoustic guitar, which stood by Erik's drumkit. Mildrith's keyboards were set up in the position Uhtred usually occupied, with a mic ready for me to use.

"This is 'Let it Go,'" Skorpa announced, and Erik and Ragnar began to play the into. After four bars, I started to play the piano part, and Skorpa joined in with the guitar. Then I sang:

"Love that once hung on the wall

Used to mean something

But now it means nothing

The echoes are gone in the hall

But I still remember

The pain of December…"


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tour comes to an end. Erik & Aethelflaed, and Ragnar & Brida plan their futures, but is there any chance for Skorpa & Skade?

Chapter 15

The crowd loved the song. It was very different from anything the Vikings usually did, although my band had one softer song in our set. When we got to the last chorus, Skorpa left his mic and came over to share mine. The photographers in the pit scuttled along to our side of the stage, and the flashes coming from the audience multiplied. As the last notes faded away, Skorpa gave me a one-armed hung, then moved away so I could take a final bow and leave the stage.

The applause which had previously been deafening, was now thunderous. I slipped out of sight into the wings, and Aethelwold quickly went back on stage to move the keyboards, leaving the mic for Uhtred. Then Uhtred and Sihtric took their places again for the last couple of songs of the encore. I stayed in the wings with the girls to watch.

"That song is amazing!" Mildrith said. "I hope you get to record it."

"The audience loved it," Aethelflaed added.

"I wasn't sure how they'd receive it. I mean, primarily they've Vikings fans and they've never done anything like that." I stopped talking as Erik and Ragnar started playing the intro to the next song.

A few minutes later, it was over. The Vikings lined up at the front of the stage for a last bow, but then Skorpa grabbed his mic again.

"We just want to say a big thank you to all of you guys, and all our fans that came to the other shows. Without you, we wouldn't be here. It's our first time performing in the UK for more years than I care to remember."

He was drowned out by applause for a couple of minutes. Crowds of girls near the front could be heard screaming Uhtred and Ragnar's names in particular. Brida grinned. "They can't have Ragnar. He's mine," she said smugly.

"We know." Mildrith rolled her eyes.

"We also want to thank Pagan Rock for giving us such fantastic support," Skorpa continued. "Come out, girls!"

"Oh, wow. Another bow." Grinning, Brida was first out. The rest of us followed, blinking as more camera flashes went off.

"It's time to say goodbye, but hopefully you won't have to wait ten years to see us again this time," Skorpa finished. "Don't forget to grab a copy of our record, and Pagan Rock's too, if you haven't already."

We all left the stage again and made our way down to the dressing rooms. Aethelwold and the Vikings' roadies went out to take down the rest of the equipment and even as they did this and the venue lights went on, the crowd continued to chant for more for several minutes. We stayed out of sight for half an hour before heading out to meet the fans who had waited in the hopes of seeing us. There were a lot. We spent at least an hour chatting, being photographed, and signing things. Ragnar and Brida posed together numerous times, as it was common knowledge now that they were an item. Erik and Aethelflaed, too, had been spotted together a few times and she was surrounded by girls for quite a while, being told she was lucky and asked plenty of inappropriate questions about Erik, that made her blush.

I stayed away from Skorpa. We hadn't made ourselves obvious and the photo from a couple of days ago when he kissed my cheek hadn't prompted much discussion on social media. There had been plenty of speculation about what we might have been getting up to separately on the tour. Several girls had posted that they got lucky with Sihtric, and it seemed he'd clocked up quite a few notches on his bedpost around the country.

Finally, it was over. Security ushered the remaining fans out of the building, leaving us to go on to another club where an end of tour party had been arranged by the Vikings' management. Fifty VIP tickets had been offered to fans to gain access to it, for more money than the cost of a ticket to the shows, so we weren't able to relax and enjoy, or do anything we wouldn't want to see on Twitter or Facebook a few minutes later.

I hung out with Gisela and Mildrith, posing for more photos and chatting to anyone who wanted our attention. Skorpa spent most of the evening with Uhtred doing the same thing. It was after two in the morning by the time Aethelwold drove us to the motel that had been booked for us. It was only when we arrived that we realised the Vikings were staying at other accommodation. Brida and Aethelflaed had gone with them on the other bus. Skorpa called me just as Gisela let us into our room.

"Hey." I threw myself on one of the beds. "Where are you?"

"Premier Inn. I'm sorry. I didn't know we were staying in different places until just now. You could have come on our bus."

"Oh well. Never mind." I sighed. I didn't want him to know how disappointed I was not to be spending the last night with him, not that we could have had sex—my period had started, putting paid to any residual anxiety that I could have been pregnant.

"Are you alone?"

"No, I'm sharing with Gisela."

"Shit. I was thinking of talking you out of your clothes on Facetime."

I laughed. "Sorry."

"Call me tomorrow?"

"I will. Talk soon." That was it. We ended the call and I stripped off and got into bed. "They're at Premier Inn," I told Gisela.

"I suppose we'll catch up with them in the morning. Brida and Aethelflaed will have to get back to us."

"Aethelflaed's going to Denmark," I remembered.

"Yes, but she's coming home first to pack properly and get her passport. She said Erik will come back with us on our bus, then they're going to hire a car to get back to the airport."

"Oh, okay."

"Ragnar's probably coming with us, too. He's gonna stay at Brida's flat for a few days while they decide what they're doing."

"How do you know all this?" I frowned.

Gisela laughed. "You've been with Skorpa nearly every minute for weeks. You miss all the news."

"Well, I wish I was with him now," I grumbled.

"Are you going to keep seeing each other?"

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it. He'll go back to Denmark. It was probably just a tour fling."

"Do you want it to be more?"

"I don't know," I lied. "It's been good the last few weeks, but it's not a normal environment, is it? We probably won't have a thing in common in normal life. Besides, I don't want to go and live in Denmark."

"What if Skorpa suggested staying here?"

"I doubt he will."

"Clearly you haven't seen the way he looks at you."

"You mean like he wants to rip my clothes off?" I joked.

Gisela frowned. "Thanks for that delightful picture. No, like he worships the ground you walk on."

"Bollocks," I scoffed, but my pulse quickened. Did he feel like that about me? Would I get the opportunity to find out?

The next morning, the Vikings' bus arrived at our Travelodge, to drop off Brida, Ragnar, Aethelflaed, and Erik. There would be just enough room for us all on the minibus for the journey back to Winchester. Uhtred and Sihtric got off the bus to say goodbye to us.

Uhtred wrapped his arms around me in a bearhug. "You are coming back to meet Iseult, right?" he said. "We're staying in London with her friend for another week or so before we go back."

"Of course I will." I glanced over his shoulder, looking for Skorpa. "Where's—?"

Uhtred let go of me. "He's not here."

"What? Where is he?" My heart plummeted into my boots, and the extent of my hurt surprised me.

"He, um, he left early. He said he needed to get home."

"He's gone back to Denmark already?" I gasped.

"Didn't you two talk to each other at all?" Uhtred's eyebrows rose. "Skorpa lives in London. In the suburbs, anyway. He has done for a few years. He came back to Denmark to work on the album and record, and tour, but he has a house here."

"He didn't tell me that."

Uhtred shook his head. "You should call him, then. If you want to keep in touch with him. Do you?"

"I—" I paused. At the news that Skorpa lived in London, my spirits had lifted. But he had left to go home, without even saying goodbye. He hadn't called, or even sent a text. That told me he didn't want to continue whatever it was we had had for the past few weeks. Clearly, it had really only been a bit of fun for him while we were on tour. "Nah." I shook my head. "It was fun while it lasted."

Uhtred frowned at me. "Are you sure? I thought you were pretty fond of him."

"I don't really do relationships." I shrugged. "We need to get going. I will call you as soon as we get sorted out at home, and I'll get a train back to London. I can't wait to meet Iseult."

"Okay. Safe journey. See you soon." Uhtred gave me another quick hug and went to get back on the bus.

Ten minutes later, we were on the road to Winchester. I sat up front with Aethelwold, staring out of the window in a morose silence, while the others chatted in the seats behind us. After a while, I pulled out my phone and checked Twitter. Our followers had increased in number since last night's show, and there was a lot of talk about my duet with Skorpa. It reminded me that we had talked about recording, so if that happened presumably I would see him then. But otherwise, it was over. I didn't know whether it was worse than he lived less than a hundred miles away from me, or better. If he didn't want to see me, it didn't really matter.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade visits Uhtred and Iseult, and Ragnar admits he is worried about Skorpa's apparent disappearance

Chapter 16

I still had my phone in my hand when I arrived home at the flat I shared with Gisela. I had hoped Skorpa might call or text me, but he hadn't. I remembered our brief conversation from last night when he'd said, "Call me tomorrow?" but after he went home without even saying goodbye, I hadn't bothered. I considered it now, as I sprawled on the couch, watching Gisela bustling around unpacking and putting things in the washing machine.

"Skade, if you sort your bag out, I can put your stuff in the machine with mine," she said.

"I'll do it later." I scrolled through my contacts and found Skorpa's number.

"If you're going to talk sex with him, can you do it in your room?" she called over her shoulder as she went into the kitchen.

"I doubt I'll be doing that," I grumbled.

Gisela came back into the room. "What happened? I saw he wasn't on the bus with the others."

"He went home. Never said anything to me."

"Then he's a dickhead." She disappeared again.

I called his number before I could talk myself out of it. I at least wanted to find out why. But his phone went straight to voicemail as if it were switched off: "This is Skorpa. Leave a message."

I hung up. I had no intention of talking to his voicemail. What would I say anyway? Why did you fuck off without saying goodbye? Why didn't you tell me you lived in the UK? If he wanted me that badly, he wouldn't have done a disappearing act. Instead, I called Uhtred.

"Hey! Miss me already?" he said.

"I'm bored already, more like. When do you want me to turn up?"

"Sunday? Hey, wait, I'll put you on speaker. Iseult is here."

We chatted for a few minutes. Iseult sounded sweet and gentle, and told me she was glad Uhtred had had a friend on tour. I told her I'd heard her name at least a hundred times a day, and she laughingly told me Uhtred was blushing. I knew right away she would be just as good a friend as Uhtred was, and I arranged to get the train to London on Sunday morning. Uhtred told me which underground train to get on, and that he would meet me at the nearest stop to their friend's home.

When I hung up, Aelswith called. She was full of praise for how the tour went. Our album was up to number twelve in the rock charts, one place behind the Vikings'. She had already talked to their manager about recording 'Let it Go' and he was to discuss it with Skorpa and make arrangements. I refused to be excited about that. I may not even see him in the studio—chances were I would record my vocals and piano alone, while he, Erik, and Ragnar did their parts separately.

I hauled myself up, sorted out my tour gear, then repacked my bag for my trip back to London. I might not even stay overnight, but I wanted to be prepared in case I was invited.

My visit to Uhtred and Iseult was fun. She was a beautiful person, and she and Uhtred clearly adored each other. Uhtred had proposed the minute he got back from the tour, and she wore a gorgeous emerald surrounded by diamonds, set in platinum. They planned to get married in Denmark after the baby was born. Iseult's friend, Clara, was great, too. She had a spare couch and was happy for me to stay a couple of nights. Although she hadn't been to our show, she had our album and said she loved it. As she had her own piano, I played 'Let it Go' for them, along with Pagan Rock's other rock ballad.

When I returned to Winchester, I'd almost put Skorpa out of my mind. Almost. No, I was lying to myself. I checked my phone a hundred times a day in the hopes that he might have sent me a text, or called, or even tagged me on social media, but he hadn't. At least fifty times, I'd almost called him again, but I refused to let myself do it. He'd have one missed call from me, and I didn't want to make myself seem desperate. But it didn't stop me wishing he would get in touch.

A few days later, I heard from Uhtred and Iseult that they were on their way back to Denmark. Erik and Aethelflaed were currently in Copenhagen, and numerous photos of their adventures there had appeared on their Twitter feeds. Both the Vikings' fans and ours seemed to love the news of their romance, as much as they loved getting updates from Brida and Ragnar, not that they seemed to be doing anything other than laze around in bed at her flat.

Gisela, Mildrith and I started writing a new song, and before we knew it, a couple of weeks had gone by. Aethelflaed was home to work with us, but she spent more time on the phone with Erik than writing. Brida joined us every day, accompanied by Ragnar. The pair seemed glued together and couldn't even bear to be apart for a few hours while she created the drum parts to the new song.

Aelswith called me again, to say that she and the Vikings' manager had made a loose arrangement for us to record the duet, but they hadn't been able to contact Skorpa so far to confirm it. He hadn't returned his manager's calls or emails, and nothing had been heard from him on social media since the tour ended. He seemed to have disappeared. Part of me worried that something had happened to him, but the other part was just annoyed. So much for him apparently worshipping the ground I walked on, as Gisela had said.

Then a few days later, Ragnar called me. I was sprawling in front of the TV, watching some crap chick flick that Gisela liked. My first thought was that he was calling about Brida and I answered quickly.

"Hey, Ragnar, what's up?"

"Skade, have you heard from Skorpa?" he asked.

"No, I thought you knew that. I haven't spoken to him since the last night of the tour."

"I haven't either. Not since that morning at the motel, anyway. Do you mind if I ask what happened between you two?"

"Nothing happened. He said nothing. He never even told me he lived in the UK. We talked on the phone after the show, and he said, 'call me tomorrow.' I called, but his phone was off."

"And he didn't call you back?"

"No. Clearly, it was only a bit of fun. Why are you asking me?"

"None of us have been able to contact him." Ragnar paused. "He did this last year around this time. Went completely off the grid. I'm just worried that—"

I sat up. "Could it be about Emilie?"

"He told you about her?" Ragnar asked in surprise.

"Yes. He said you were the only one who knew, because you were around when it happened."

"Yeah. Well, it was the anniversary of her death today."

"Shit," I muttered, immediately anxious. It had been close to what would have been her birthday when Skorpa told me about her. He'd confided in me, then escaped into the bathroom in tears.

"Do you care about him at all?" Ragnar asked then.

"Yes, I do. But it didn't seem like he was that into it at the end. He didn't bother contacting me."

"I doubt he would thank me for saying this, but he was in love with you. I'm not the most observant guy in the world, but I could see it as plain as day."

I gasped and my heart jumped. "Did he say anything?"

"No, but he wouldn't, because he's a stubborn idiot. He wouldn't tell you either, because he'd hate to admit to anything unless he was sure it wouldn't be thrown back in his face. He probably took off that morning before you had the chance to tell him it was over. Anyway, I'm worried about him and I'm gonna go to his house."

"I'm coming with you," I said immediately, leaping to my feet.

"Get a few things together. Brida and I will pick you up in fifteen minutes," Ragnar said, and ended the call.

I rushed into my room, grabbed my bag, and shoved some clothes and toiletries into it. Gisela appeared in the doorway. "What are you doing? What did Ragnar want?"

"He's worried about Skorpa. No one has heard from him. He hasn't been in touch with any of the band or their manager."

"I knew you cared about him," Gisela said with a smile.

"Of course I do, but I didn't even want to admit it to myself when it seemed like he just wanted to forget about it." I opened a drawer and grabbed my passport.

"I thought he lived in London?"

"Yeah, he does. Just in case." I put it in my bag and zipped it closed, then opened it again and put my phone charger in. "I'll let you know what's happening. I might be back tomorrow, or I might not. I don't know."

By the time I had my jacket and boots on, Brida's car was outside. I hurried out and got in the back seat. Ragnar was driving, and I doubted Brida's little Fiesta had gone so fast in its life.

"I didn't think you were even that bothered about Skorpa," Brida said, turning around in her seat to look at me. "I know you were practically joined at the hip on the tour, but I thought it was just—I don't know—sex." She wrinkled her nose.

I shrugged. "I thought it might have been more than that."

"Gisela did say he looked at you like the sun shone out of your arse. I didn't see it myself."

"I doubt you saw anything other than Ragnar."

Brida actually blushed, while Ragnar snorted quietly, then took his hand off the steering wheel to squeeze her knee.

"But what about you? You have feelings for him?" Brida pressed.

Again, I shrugged. "I suppose."

Ragnar shook his head. "You were made for Skorpa. You're as bad as each other. What the hell did you talk about for six weeks?"

"Clearly not what mattered," I said. "Apart from—" I stopped.

"It's okay, I told Brida," Ragnar told me. "Kind of had to."

"I can't even imagine losing a child." Brida shook her head. "No wonder he overdosed."

"It wasn't intentional," Ragnar continued. "He just wanted to stop thinking for a while."

"You think he might do that again?" I asked anxiously.

"I hope not. Last year he just cut himself off from everyone for a couple of weeks. But he sent me a text to say he was okay. Not this year."

"Put your foot down, Ragnar," I said, fidgeting as the miles crawled by. All I could think about now, was if things had got on top of him, what if we were too late?


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade, Ragnar, and Brida find Skorpa in a bad way

Chapter 17

"This is it." Ragnar turned the car into the driveway of a detached house in Hounslow and parked beside a ten-year-old Range Rover. It was dusk, and a light shone out of one of the ground floor front windows. We all got out of the car and hurried to the front door. Ragnar rang the bell, while I looked in the window.

The room was a large living room. Skorpa wasn't there, but a half-empty whiskey bottle stood on the coffee table. As I peered in, Skorpa walked unsteadily into the room. He wore only jeans, the fly half-fastened. He had shaved off his beard and had only stubble on his face. His hair looked tangled and unwashed. He slumped onto the couch, picked up the bottle, and gulped some of the contents.

Ragnar rang the bell again, then came to the window. Skorpa put down the bottle, picked up a paper bag, and took out a small wrap of something.

"Oh, fuck. We need to get in there. Follow me." Ragnar took off around the side of the house at a run. I followed at top speed, with Brida behind me.

"What's going on? What's he doing?" she asked.

Ragnar stopped outside another door and tried it. When he found it locked, he bent to move a plant pot and picked up a key. In seconds, he had the door open and I raced through it.

"Skade! Wait!" Ragnar followed me as I ran through the kitchen and into a hallway, heading for the front of the house. He grabbed my arm before I charged into the living room. Then he went in first. "Skorpa? What the hell are you doing, man?"

Skorpa put down the spoon he had in his hand and lurched to his feet. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

"Saving you from doing something really fucking stupid," Ragnar said, moving closer.

"You're not invited," Skorpa growled, then swung a punch. He staggered drunkenly, and Ragnar easily ducked out of range.

"Don't be an idiot." Ragnar grabbed him by the shoulders and manhandled him onto the sofa. "Brida, go and make some coffee. Bring water, too."

"Go to hell, Ragnar," Skorpa mumbled.

"Yeah, I'll probably see you there, but not anytime soon if I have anything to do with it." Ragnar grabbed the paper bag and the wrap of drugs, then the whiskey bottle as well when Skorpa reached for it. "You've had enough."

"Not nearly."

"Skorpa." I sat down next to him.

He glanced at me and groaned, then sunk his head into his hands. "Great. I really wanted to see you right now."

I winced but tried not to let it bother me. He was drunk and probably didn't know what he was saying. "I was worried about you," I said.

"No need. I'm alive."

Ragnar shook his head. Brida came in then with a huge mug of black coffee and a glass of water. She put them on the table and Ragnar passed her the bag and the whiskey. "Pour that down the sink," he told her, "and flush the other shit down the toilet."

"Okay." Brida disappeared again.

Ragnar picked up the glass of water and held it out to Skorpa. "Get that down you."

"Where's my whiskey?"

"You drank it all." Ragnar pressed the glass into his hand. "Come on, man, you need to sober up."

"Who are you? My mother?" Skorpa scowled, but eventually took the glass and gulped some of it. When he put it down, Ragnar gave him the coffee mug. He didn't protest anymore but started drinking it. When it was half gone, he got up suddenly and rushed out of the room. He threw up for several minutes in the downstairs bathroom, then a tap started running.

"I'm sorry you got dragged into this," Ragnar said.

"I'm not." I smiled a little. "I don't think you were around when I got drunk on tour. Skorpa took care of me when I had my head down the toilet and didn't know what I was doing."

"I'll try and get him to talk."

"No. Leave it to me. Just leave us for a while."

"We probably shouldn't leave you alone with him. He almost hit Ragnar," Brida said doubtfully.

"I'll be fine."

"I could use some coffee myself. Let's go in the kitchen," Ragnar said, and led her out of the room.

A few minutes later, Skorpa came back in and sat down, avoiding my eyes. He picked up the coffee mug and sipped it. "You weren't supposed to see this."

"I'm just glad we got here before things got worse."

"I didn't take any of that other shit."

"But you were going to."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time." He finished the coffee and put the mug down.

"Skorpa, what's going on? Is this about Emilie?"

"Mainly. It's the anniversary of her death today. Things got on top of me." He dragged a hand through his hair and closed his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Ragnar called me. He was worried about you. No one has heard from you since the tour ended. You just disappeared. I tried calling."

"My phone's off." He got up suddenly. "I'm going to bed. Let yourselves out."

Frustrated and sad, I went to the kitchen to find the others. "He's gone to bed," I told Ragnar.

"Best place for him. He won't be thinking straight. It'll take more than a mug of coffee to sort his head out. Did he say anything to you?"

"Not really. Only that his phone's off. Maybe I shouldn't have come. I don't think he wants me here."

"He's drunk, Skade. Trust me, when he sobers up, he'll feel like a dick, but he'll be glad to see you."

"Okay. Then I'll stay."

"We're all staying. There are two guest rooms upstairs. Brida and I will take one of them. You take your pick." He shot me a smile and left the room.

I made use of the downstairs bathroom, then headed upstairs. A light showed under one of the doors, and faint voices came from within. The next two doors were open, revealing another bathroom and a room full of guitars and keyboards. I tried the next door, which was closed, and found a guest bedroom. The last door was to the room at the front of the house, which had to be Skorpa's bedroom. I tapped lightly and opened the door.

He was in bed, snoring softly. I slipped inside, closed the door, and stripped down to my underwear. Maybe he would feel like a dick when he woke up, but I doubted it could be any worse than me waking with him to find out I'd puked in his toilet and given him a partial striptease. I grinned at the memory as I slid into the bed beside him.

I didn't sleep much that night. Skorpa snored and tossed and turned. I could have gone to sleep in the other guest room, but I didn't want to leave him alone. I eventually got up at eight, found a bathrobe thrown over a chair, and put it on before going downstairs to make coffee. Ragnar and Brida were already up, hunting in the cupboards and refrigerator for food, but there was nothing other than leftover takeaway and a mouldy loaf of bread.

"How is he?" Ragnar asked me.

"Still asleep." I made two mugs of black coffee. I preferred mine milky, but there was no milk. I headed back upstairs, just as Skorpa came out of the bathroom naked.

"Sorry," he grunted and went back into his bedroom. I followed and closed the door. He put on some underwear and sat on the edge of the bed, grimacing.

"Here." I passed him a mug of coffee and sat beside him. "Hangover?"

"The worst. Whatever I said last night, I apologise."

"You didn't say much." I sipped my coffee. "This must be a horrible time for you."

"Yeah. I don't want to think about that right now."

"Okay." I tried to think of something else to say, to change the subject and get him talking. "Why did you never tell me you lived here?" I asked. "I thought you lived in Denmark."

"I don't know. I do have an apartment there for when we're recording. I just prefer not to be there."

"Why did you leave without saying goodbye after the tour? We talked on the phone after the show and you said, 'call me tomorrow.' Then you just left."

Skorpa groaned and rubbed a hand over his face, then threw his hair back over his shoulders. "Why do you think? I didn't know how things would go, but I doubted you would want to keep seeing me. I thought it would be easier to just leave."

"Rather than what? I called, you know, and your phone was off. I thought it was just a bit of fun to you, while we were on tour."

"It was at first." He sighed. "I'm not good at this."

"I'll say it, then, shall I?" I wasn't good at it either—talking about feelings. The one relationship I'd had, resulted in me getting my feelings trampled all over. "It was fun, but it got to be more than that pretty quickly. I care about you. I didn't want it to end. I just didn't know how things could work if you lived in Denmark, and then you left without saying anything, so I didn't think you wanted to even talk about it."

He turned to look at me at last, his face serious and hopeful. "You want me?"

I smiled. "Remember the first time you said that? You just finished tattooing me. We were both as horny as hell."

"How could I forget?" He grinned. "I was rock hard from about ten minutes in. I never expected to get that lucky."

"Nor did I. And yes, I still want you. I want you in my life. I'm not good at this either, by the way, so we have our work cut out."

"I don't know. You're doing pretty good so far. I'm sorry about last night. I didn't take any of that shit, although I would have. I'm in a bad place, but it wasn't just about Emilie yesterday. It was about you, too." He looked away, suddenly awkward. "I guess I felt more for you than I expected to, and I didn't handle it very well when I thought it was over."

I slid my hand into his. "How about we send Ragnar and Brida home, and I stay with you a couple of days so we can sort out what we're going to do?"

He nodded and squeezed my hand. "Can you go downstairs and send Ragnar up? I'll spare Brida from seeing me like this anymore."

"Sure." I got up, then bent to give him a quick kiss on the cheek before I made my way back down to the kitchen.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade offers to go to Denmark with Skorpa to visit Emilie's grave

Chapter 18

"How is he?" Ragnar asked me.

"Hungover and apologetic. He wants to see you."

"Okay." He went upstairs.

"Are you all right?" Brida asked as soon as he was gone.

"Sure."

"You look like you didn't get any sleep."

"I didn't. He snored all night." I smirked. "I'm gonna stay here for a few days. I'll text Gisela later. Can you tell the others what's going on?"

"Are you sure you should stay here on your own?" Brida frowned. "What if he gets out of control? Anything could happen. He almost hit Ragnar. What if he—?"

"Don't even think that. He'll be okay. So will I."

Ragnar returned a few minutes later. "Brida, can I borrow your car? I'm gonna run out and get a few things. There's a supermarket down the end of the road."

"Sure, you have the keys."

I stayed in the kitchen chatting to Brida until Ragnar came back twenty minutes later with milk, bread, cold meat and cheese, and a few snack items. Brida made cheese on toast for us all, and I had another coffee with milk. The shower started running upstairs. Skorpa didn't come down before Ragnar and Brida left. When he eventually emerged wearing jeans and a tee shirt, his hair wet, he looked much better.

"I noticed you shaved your beard off," I said.

"Yeah, it had too much grey in it. I was starting to look old." He grinned.

"Do you want anything to eat? Ragnar fetched some things."

"Not really, but I should. I can't remember when I last ate. It was probably a couple of days ago."

I frowned but didn't say anything. "You like cheese, right?"

"Yeah."

I made more cheese on toast and another cup of coffee. "Do you own this house?" I asked. I wanted to get him talking but decided not to mention Emilie until he brought her up himself, which was faster than I expected.

"Yes, I bought it years ago, when the band first started getting famous. We had an advance for our first couple of records. I lived here part of the time, and the rest of it in Denmark. Then when I started dating Mette, I stayed over there and let the house out. I came back here permanently after—" He pushed the mostly empty plate aside. "—after Emilie died."

"Have you been back? I mean, I know you've been there recording and touring, but have you been back to see her?"

"No." He hung his head. "Couldn't. She's buried in a little village where we used to live. I haven't been there since the funeral."

"Don't you think it might help?" I asked cautiously.

"Help what?"

"I don't know. How you feel about things. Please tell me to shut up and mind my own business if you want."

"No, go on."

"You blame yourself, don't you? I just thought it might help if you went to see her."

"I don't know if I can," he said shakily.

"You wouldn't be on your own. I can go with you."

"You'd do that?"

"Yes. I even brought my passport with me, just in case. I didn't really think about why when I packed it, but I didn't know what to expect when we came here last night."

"I'll think about it," he said slowly.

"Okay. Whatever you want."

We didn't do much that day. Skorpa didn't want to talk anymore, so we listened to some music, watched a couple of movies, and ordered pizza. He didn't touch me except to squeeze my hand when I slid mine into it, and when we went to bed, he slept on his back with his arms folded across his chest. He was silent and closed off, miserable, and I didn't know what to do. Perhaps just being there helped, but I couldn't tell.

When I woke the next morning, I was alone. I got up to go to the bathroom, took a quick shower and put some clothes on before I went downstairs. I found Skorpa sitting at the kitchen table tapping at the keyboard of a laptop.

"Hey. You okay?"

"Yeah." He switched off the laptop and closed the lid. "We're going to Denmark."

"When?"

"This afternoon. Tickets are booked. Lucky you brought your passport." He smiled.

"I didn't bring many clothes with me."

"We can buy some for a few days. I ordered a taxi to take us to the airport. It'll be here in an hour, if there's anything you need to do first."

"I'll let the girls know." I pulled out my phone and sent texts to Gisela and Brida, telling them I was okay and that I was going to Denmark with Skorpa for a few days.

"I'm glad you're here," Skorpa said suddenly. He took my hand and laced our fingers together. "I don't deserve you."

"Maybe not but you're stuck with me." I leaned over and kissed his cheek. Then I touched the scar running from his forehead past the corner of his eye to his cheek. "I never asked how you got this."

"It's not a heroic tale. The press would say I got hit by a broken bottle on stage years ago. I did, but that was a tiny cut." He pointed to another smaller scar to the left of the large wrinkled one. "No, I was just fucked up on booze and drugs, and I fell through a glass door. I was lucky it didn't take my eye out. I didn't know anything about it until I woke up in hospital with fourteen stitches in my face. They wanted to keep me in for another twenty-four hours, but I was sick from the drugs—or from the lack of them." He grimaced. "I discharged myself. A couple of days later, I pulled half the stitches out while I was off my head. That's why the scar's so bad. It didn't heal right." He rolled his eyes. "That's probably one of the worst things there is to know about me. The press didn't even get hold of it, amazingly. They must have been slacking that day. It was before I knew Mette. I went into rehab about two months later. We got together when I was clean. I managed to stay that way for a few years, until we lost Emilie." He sighed heavily. "I'm not exactly painting you a great picture to make you want to stay, am I?"

I squeezed his hand. "I'm going nowhere."

"I'm glad you showed up yesterday before things got worse than they already were."

"Me too."

"I'd better pack a bag." He went upstairs.

Half an hour later, we had everything ready. I made a few sandwiches with the cold meat Ragnar had bought so we had something for the journey. We'd be sitting around in Heathrow for three hours and the food would only go to waste otherwise.

When the taxi dropped us off at the airport and we walked into the building, a young couple immediately recognised Skorpa and headed our way.

"If you want to slip away and pretend you're not with me, feel free," he said quickly. "Someone's bound to take pictures of us at some point and—"

"We're together, aren't we?" I interrupted. "So, let them photograph us all they like." I slid my hand into his and held on tight.

He grinned. "You know this will be on Twitter by lunchtime."

"I'm sure people will enjoy talking about it for half a day, until something more exciting happens."

"Skorpa?" The young guy approached.

"Yeah."

"Sorry to bother you. Do you mind if I get a picture? We came to your last show at the Astoria. It was amazing."

"Knock yourself out," Skorpa said.

The girl walked up a little shyly and looked at me. "You're Skade. I loved your band, and your duet was great. Are you together?"

"Looks that way, doesn't it?" I smiled.

"Did you get together on the tour?"

I glanced at Skorpa and he smirked. "Yes," I said. "I guess he couldn't resist my charms."

"Are you going on holiday together?"

"Just a short trip, that's all."

The couple took a few photos with their phones, then thanked us and walked away. Their attention had attracted a few others, and we were held up for fifteen minutes while people took selfies with us and asked the same question over and over—'Are you together?'

Finally, we were free to go to the check-in desk. With only carry-on luggage, we soon had our boarding passes and had put our bags, coats, and boots through the scanner. As we headed into the departure lounge, I grabbed his hand again.

"Well, everyone will know pretty soon," he said, as someone else ducked in front of us and snapped a quick picture with a camera phone. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"I'm not gonna hide being with you," I said firmly. "If it's not today, it will be some other time."

"They won't all have nice things to say."

"I've had nasty comments before." I shrugged. "Let them say what they like. I'm where I want to be. That's what's important." I reached up and kissed the corner of his mouth. "Let them put that on Twitter."

We found somewhere to sit down and ate the sandwiches we brought with us. Then we found a bar and had a pint each while we checked social media and found several pictures of ourselves holding hands with various captions and hashtags: 'Skade and Skorpa together;' 'Vikings/Pagan Rock singers holidaying together;' 'Lucky bastard Skorpa.'

"This one's about right," Skorpa said wryly, showing me a picture of me kissing him with the caption, 'What is she thinking?'

"Fuck 'em." I laughed. "What I'm thinking, is that I'm happy. That's the only thing that matters."


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade goes with Skorpa to visit Emilie, and to spend a few days in Denmark

Chapter 19

A few hours later, we landed in Hamburg, Germany. Skorpa had explained that the drive from there to Alborg in the north of Denmark was much more straightforward that flying to Copenhagen, which would then result in a drive broken by a ferry trip that often took longer. He hired a car from Sixt at the airport, drove us out of the city and headed north.

"How far is it?" I asked.

"About two hundred and eighty miles. We'll find a hotel in Alborg."

We didn't talk much on the journey, which took a little under five hours including a break to get fuel, food, and use the facilities. I watched the scenery as Skorpa drove and sent a few messages to Brida to let her know where we were, and so that Ragnar would know Skorpa was okay. By the time we checked into a hotel in Alborg, it was almost midnight.

In the morning, we ate breakfast in the hotel, then took a look around the city. I bought a pair of jeans, some shirts, socks, and underwear to last a few extra days. Then we grabbed lunch in a coffee shop, although Skorpa didn't eat much. He grew progressively tense as the time passed, and he seemed to be putting off going to the village of Brovst where Emilie was buried. It was four o'clock before we set off.

"Do you want me to drive?" I offered as we reached the car, but Skorpa shook his head and got in the driver's seat. He didn't speak on the thirty-minute drive, and his knuckles turned white as he gripped the steering wheel.

The church was surprisingly large for such a small village, with its walls painted white and its roof of terracotta tiles. It was surrounded by well-kept trees and shrubs, with gravestones in between. Skorpa walked slowly towards the graveyard, his hands in his pockets, then stopped a little distance from a marble stone with an angel carving at the top. Unsure if he would want me with him, I hung back.

"I'll go and look at the church," I said softly. He nodded but didn't look at me, and I assumed he would have said not to if he'd wanted my company. I walked up the path to the building and opened the door.

I spent about ten minutes looking around the inside of the church, then followed the path outside around its walls until I got back to the main door again. Then I slowly made my way back to where I had left Skorpa. He knelt on the grass by the gravestone, shivering and crying. I touched his hair, then knelt down and wrapped my arms around him. He held onto me as if I were a lifeline, soaking my shirt with his tears. There was nothing I could do other than be there for him. Eventually, he pulled back and scrubbed his hands over his face.

"Let's go." He got up abruptly and walked back to the car.

"Give me the keys," I said, and he handed them over without a word.

I drove back to Alborg and managed to find the hotel easily without needing any input from Skorpa. When we reached the room, he went into the bathroom and closed the door. He emerged after a while and gave me a hug.

"Sorry," he said with a sigh.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. That must have been… hard."

"Yeah. I'm all right. I'm glad you're here. I couldn't do it before. I've been in Alborg on tour—just a few miles away—but I couldn't go there. I thought it would make things worse, but I don't feel so bad just now. I never got the chance to properly say goodbye to her. Of course, I was at the funeral, but I only had Ragnar with me. Mette and her family wouldn't speak to me and it was obvious they didn't want me there. I wasn't welcome back at her parents' house afterwards, so Ragnar and I came here and stayed in a hotel. I should have gone back the next day, but I couldn't make myself do it. Instead, I got wasted and wrecked the room. I may have punched Ragnar, too." He cringed and shook his head. "We left the next day and I don't remember getting home."

He talked on and on, telling me things about Emilie—when she was born; things she liked to do; how she enjoyed listening to Skorpa playing his guitar and singing. He seemed better for having gone to the graveyard and for talking about her.

"I'm starving," he said eventually. "Do you want to go out and eat?"

"Yes, that'd be good," I agreed.

We went to a small Italian restaurant a few blocks away, ate pasta and drank wine, then walked back to the hotel. When we reached the room, Skorpa suddenly grabbed me in his arms and kissed me. It had been a while since we'd been together—before the tour ended—and we fell onto the bed in a tangle of limbs, suddenly desperate to get out of our clothes. He pinned me to the mattress and drove into me, neither of us wanting to waste time with teasing foreplay. Afterwards, we lay in each other's arms, sweating and panting. Skorpa whispered something that I couldn't make out, his mouth pressed against my neck.

"What did you say?" I murmured.

"I said I love you," he said, still breathless but perfectly clear.

My pounding heart lurched a little and I didn't answer right away.

"You don't have to say anything," he added quickly. "But I want you to know how important you are to me."

"Skorpa, I—"

"Don't." He cut off my words with a kiss. "I didn't expect any of this. I thought it was a hook-up at first. You drove me wild with how horny you got when I was tattooing you."

I laughed softly.

"But it became more, pretty fast. I didn't want to face that, and I took off. I shouldn't have run away, but I was convinced you wouldn't want to keep seeing me. I don't think you realise how much you helped me the last couple of days. I couldn't have done this without you. But I feel better and that's down to you."

I hadn't expected to feel so much for him either. I remembered waking up in his arms after that drunken night and being horrified. Then I got to know him and realised how much I liked him. I knew how I felt when the tour ended, but I hadn't wanted to admit it to myself. I hadn't wanted to accept how hurt I was when he left without saying anything to me.

"I'm glad I could be here for you," I said. "I love you too."

His arms tightened around me, almost crushing me. Neither of us said anymore—we just held each other until we fell asleep.

When I woke, it was daylight, and I was alone. The shower was running in the bathroom, and I stayed where I was. I checked my phone and as I was about to reply to a message from Brida asking how Skorpa was, she called me.

"Hi, Brida," I answered.

"It's Ragnar."

"Oh, hey."

"How is he?"

"He's okay," I said, as Skorpa came out of the bathroom. "Ragnar," I mouthed at him. He held out his hand for the phone and I passed it to him.

"He's fine," he said to Ragnar. I got up and went to the bathroom, leaving them talking. When I'd finished showering, Skorpa was dressed. "Are you in any hurry to get back?" he asked.

"No. What do you want to do?"

"I thought we'd go to Copenhagen for a couple of days. I'd like to show you around while we're here."

"That'd be great." I grabbed some clothes and started to get dressed.

"It's about four hours and includes a ferry ride. We'll have some breakfast, then get on the road."

"Okay." I packed the rest of my things into my bag. "I haven't travelled much. A few times when I was younger. Gisela and I went on girls' holidays to Ibiza and Majorca and places like that. We just partied and laid on the beach. And I went to Paris once on a really expensive shopping trip."

Skorpa grinned. "You haven't lived. I'd like to go to different places with you."

"I bet you've been all over the world."

"Not quite. We toured Europe back when we were first famous, and we went to Japan."

"Wow. What was that like?"

"Expensive and too many rules. I haven't been to America though."

"Me neither. We could go together. Skorpa, your manager has been trying to contact you about the duet."

"I know. I was ignoring him." He grinned. "I didn't want to deal with that. Not then, anyway. I'd like to record it with you, if you want to."

"I'd love to. I don't think my manager would let me say no to it now either. People are still talking about it on Twitter."

"We'll arrange to get in the studio when we get home."

"You seem better," I ventured carefully.

"Yeah, well I should have gone back to see Emilie a long time ago. Like I said, I couldn't bring myself to do it, but I didn't expect it to be so freeing."

"It wasn't your fault, you know. It was an accident."

"I know. I've always known that. I blamed myself because it was easier if I had someone to be angry at, even if it was myself. Mette and her family blamed me." He smiled. "I'm all right. Let's get out of here."

We had breakfast, then checked out of the hotel and got on the road. We shared the drive to Copenhagen. Skorpa was quiet on the journey, and I expected that despite his words, he would still be hurting and thinking of Emilie.

We found a hotel and checked in, then went to explore the city. I took numerous photos, and later, Skorpa brightened up again and took a few pictures of us together. We posted one on Twitter, which quickly gained numerous likes and comments.

After three nights, we drove back to Hamburg to return the car and fly home. I sent Brida a text to let her know we were on the plane, and when we arrived at Heathrow, Ragnar called. He was hovering outside in Brida's car in the pick-up zone, trying to avoid paying a parking charge. We hurried outside and I slid into the backseat, letting Skorpa take the front.

We went to Skorpa's house first, so he could collect some more clothes and other things. He had already decided to come back to Winchester for a few days to stay with me. Gisela probably wouldn't be too happy about it, but we didn't want to part just yet. She wasn't home when we got in.

Skorpa put his bag in my room and looked around with interest. My room was black and purple, and not very feminine. "Are you sure Gisela won't mind? We could stay in a hotel," he suggested.

"I've had to put up with some of her really awful boyfriends in the past," I said. "She won't care—much."

"I won't care much about what?" Gisela said. She had slipped in without us noticing.

"Skorpa's staying for a few days."

"Okay." Much to my surprise, Gisela went to him and gave him a hug. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, thanks."

"Skade, Aethelflaed called earlier. She and Erik got back yesterday. They were going to come round tonight to have some takeaway. Is that okay with you?"

I glanced at Skorpa and he nodded.

"Sure, no problem. It'll be nice to see the lovebirds," I said.

Skorpa grinned and met my eyes. Erik and Aethelflaed wouldn't be the only lovebirds in the room tonight.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Skade and Skorpa record their duet and everyone looks forward to the future

Chapter 20

"How much did Brida tell you?" I asked Gisela when we were in the kitchen getting some beers.

"Only enough so I didn't worry about you."

"It's all right, you can talk about it," Skorpa said from the door.

"I'm sorry," I said quickly.

"Don't be. Look, I never talked about Emilie before because it hurt too much. But that trip to Denmark helped. Of course it still hurts; it always will. But I'm going to tell the other guys what happened when I talk to them next."

There was a knock on the door then, and Aethelflaed opened it to let herself and Erik in. "Here's one of them now." I passed Skorpa a beer.

"Thanks. Erik," he greeted. "Enjoy our homeland?"

"Yeah, it was good. I heard you've been there, too."

Gisela grabbed more drinks for Erik and Aethelflaed, and we all moved to the living room. Skorpa gave the others a brief outline of what we had been doing in Denmark, and what happened to Emilie. Erik looked horrified but understood why he had never said anything.

A little while later, an assortment of pizzas arrived. We all ate and watched a movie. Then Erik and Aethelflaed left. Gisela packed a small bag and went with them to be dropped off at Mildrith's place. She had decided to give us some privacy and although Skorpa protested about her leaving her own home for him, she jokingly said she'd rather not listen to us breaking the bedsprings all night.

The next day, Skorpa called Uhtred and I talked to him and Iseult for a while, too. They were back in Denmark in a rented house, which they had decided upon until after the baby was born. They would look to buy one later. After that, Skorpa talked to Sihtric, who had stayed in London after the tour and rented a flat.

Then Skorpa called his manager to discuss the recording of 'Let it Go.' After that, I spoke to Aelswith. Things started to move forward, and the two managers were to arrange between them when we would go into the studio. In the meantime, we set up a couple of practise sessions with Ragnar and Erik. I packed up some things and we moved back to Skorpa's house for the time being. We hadn't officially decided to live together, but somehow it had just happened. Erik and Ragnar came over for a few days to rehearse and brought Aethelflaed and Brida with them.

Skorpa's basement was set up like a small studio and was ideal for rehearsing. I hadn't seen the room before, as the door was hidden inside the cupboard under the stairs. We spent hours in there, playing around with the song until we'd tweaked it and ad-libbed.

Skorpa's manager got in touch to let us know he had studio time booked in London for the following week. Brida and Aethelflaed went back to Winchester while we did that, and we had the recording done within three days. Ragnar and Erik returned to Winchester, and Skorpa and I stayed at his house in Hounslow.

Social media was full of posts about both bands. Not only was mine and Skorpa's relationship common knowledge now, but Brida and Ragnar, and Aethelflaed and Erik were also everywhere you looked. On the whole, the supporters of both bands were happy for all of us, although there were a few jealous comments from girls who liked Erik and Ragnar, and still the odd one from people who thought I was mad to get together with Skorpa. But then there were those who loved the fact that we hooked up on tour, just as much as they enjoyed hearing about Erik and Aethelflaed, and Ragnar and Brida.

TWO MONTHS LATER

I stood at the side of the studio out of camera-shot, with Skorpa, Ragnar, and Erik, waiting for our cue. It was the first time on TV for me. The Vikings had performed a few times on various shows when they were first famous years' earlier, but it was new to Ragnar and Erik, of course. Uhtred, Sihtric, and my girls all sat in the Green Room watching the show being recorded. We were about to perform 'Let it Go' for the first time since we'd done it on tour, and the single was ready to be released at midnight in two days' time. Our performance on a show for MTV was intended to get as much publicity as possible, and would of course, end of up on You Tube the day after it was broadcast.

The previous guest's interview ended, and the presenter stood up from the sofa at the opposite side of the stage. Cameras moved around, and a crew rolled Erik's drumkit on its wheeled platform, into position, followed by my keyboard set-up and several mic stands. Then we were ushered onto the stage by a director. I took up my position behind the keyboards, wiping damp palms on my black jeans. My heart pounded with nervousness and I hoped to God I wouldn't mess up the intro or forget the lyrics. My only saving grace was that the show was recorded and not live, so if the worst came to the worst, we could start over.

"Pretend you're on stage and there's an audience out there instead of a bunch of cameras," Skorpa whispered, as he walked past me to his mic.

"I could imagine the crew naked," I suggested.

He halted quickly and pressed his mouth to my ear. "Don't you dare! That privilege is reserved for me."

I giggled. "Don't give me ideas like that. Hell."

"Are we ready, guys?" the director prompted.

"Sure." Skorpa left me and went to his position. The show host moved forward to stand at the front of the stage.

"Three, two, one," the director counted down, gesturing to the camera guys with his fingers. "Rolling."

The host lifted his microphone. "Now we have some great music for you from Skorpa and Skade, with the first live performance of a brand new single, 'Let it Go.'

"Skorpa of the Vikings and Skade from Pagan Rock, with back-up musicians, Ragnar and Erik, also from the Vikings are here today to entertain you. Many of you will have seen them on tour a few months ago and any of you lucky enough to be at their last show at London Astoria, will have heard the very first version of 'Let it Go,' when it had literally just been penned by the couple while in their hotel rooms.

"The song will be available for download from both the Vikings' and Pagan Rock's websites from midnight tonight, so get ready to log on and click that 'Buy it Now' button. Take it away, guys!"

Erik counted in by tapping his drumsticks together, then he and Ragnar began to play the rhythm introduction. Skorpa added guitar and I came in with the keyboards. As soon as the music started, I put the fact that four TV cameras were on us—one of them practically in my face—out of my mind, and when the intro ended, I began to sing:

"Love that once hung on the wall

Used to mean something

But now it means nothing

The echoes are gone in the hall

But I still remember

The pain of December…"

When the song ended, the host came back onto the stage to repeat the information about how to get the single, then the cameras were off us.

"That was great, guys. We're done now. Feel free to watch the recording of the rest of the show from the Green Room."

The crew members began moving my keyboards off the stage again, followed by Erik's drums. Aethelwold had been employed for the day, and he began dismantling everything and taking it out to the bus a bit at a time.

When we reached the Green Room, I took a seat next to Uhtred. "So, when are you getting married? Don't forget to send an invite."

"Give us a chance." He laughed. "We've only been engaged a few weeks."

"But surely you've set a date."

"We're waiting until after the baby's born, then we'll decide. Don't be in such a rush to get us to the altar. I don't see Skorpa making an honest woman of you."

Skorpa's eyebrows rose and he looked a little startled.

"Get lost, Uhtred, I don't need a piece of paper to shackle me to him. I'm quite capable of doing that all by myself," I joked. "We live together; that's all we want."

Skorpa grinned with apparent relief. I got up and crossed the room to where he sat, and threw myself onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around me.

"Are you sure you're happy with that?" he whispered. "I know we talked about it, but—"

"I love you. We're together, aren't we? That's what matters. I'm not really a frilly white dress and flowers kind of girl. Never have been." I lowered my voice even more. "You could always tattoo me again. Brand me with your name if you like. You did joke about it the last time, and you know how that ended."

"Damn it, woman." He frowned and squirmed under me. I felt him get hard.

I laughed. "I take it that's a yes, then."

"Really, must you?" Gisela said, rolling her eyes.

"You're just jealous. Don't you think it's about time you hooked up with—?"

"Sihtric," Brida finished for me.

Gisela flushed scarlet and coughed. Sihtric snorted and his eyes twinkled.

"You think they will?" Skorpa murmured.

"It's kind of obvious they like each other, ever since our housewarming." Although Skorpa had owned his house for years, it was new to me, and I'd insisted on a party when I moved all my stuff in permanently. "The fans would love it."

"Probably."

"Do you want to stay and watch the rest of the guests?"

"I'm not that bothered. Do you?"

"No, I want you to take me home and get your tattoo gun out." I wriggled on his lap. "Now the idea's in my head, I can't wait."

"And you expect me to drive for an hour now it's in my head?" Skorpa grimaced and shoved me off him. "You're a fucking tease, you know that?"

"Jesus, you two, get a room," Brida said.

"We're going home to do that. Don't bother to visit later." I laughed and grabbed Skorpa's hand. "Let's go."

A series of rude remarks and laughs followed us as we headed out of the Green Room.

"I might curse you for making me drive home with a fucking hard-on, but I hope you know how much I love you," Skorpa said as we reached the car.

"I know. Love you, too." I gave him a quick kiss and pushed him away. "Come on, hurry up."

Laughing, he unlocked the car and we got in. A moment later we were on the road, heading back to the house we now shared, and our life together. It amused me to think that a few months ago, I'd grimaced and sworn when Aelswith told us who we would be supporting on tour. Now, I had everything I had ever wanted, and Skorpa was my number one.


End file.
